Yugioh GX: The Ancient City Tournament
by StoryLover95
Summary: It is a year after the gang has graduated from Duel Academy and some of our favorite characters are coming together for the newest tournament, the Ancient City Tournament! Pegasus has pulled out all the stops to create this awesome tournament, but when things start to go haywire, secrets are discovered, destinies revealed and lives changed forever! Jaden/Alexis, Jesse/Danni (OC)
1. Chapter 1

Yugioh GX: The Ancient City Tournament

It was a beautiful day in Domino City. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and the weather was amazing. It was for that particular reason that a certain two-toned brunette was laying out underneath a row of trees in Domino Park, just enjoying the day. He was wearing a black sleeveless muscle shirt with a pair of blue jeans and white sneakers. Just on the grass next to him was a red leather jacket, covering a black backpack and a red outlined duel disk. He was watching the beautiful cloudless sky as he waited for time to pass.

"Jaden Yuki!"

Jaden sat up from underneath the tree and blinked, looking for whoever had just called his name. He could've sworn he knew the voice. Looking over by a swing set a few yards away, Jaden's eyes widened as he spotted the familiar face of someone he hadn't expected to see. He had traded up his white shirt, black jeans, and blue jacket for a pair of light blue jeans, a dark blue sleeveless muscle shirt, black sneakers and a black leather jacket, but even with the changes, Jaden would know him anywhere. The teal hair and bluish green eyes would stick out anywhere, and the southern accent was a dead giveaway.

"Jesse Anderson!" Jaden exclaimed as he jumped to his feet, running over to his blunette friend and pulling him into a hug. The two laughed before Jaden pulled away shaking his friends' shoulder. "I didn't expect to see you here! How've you been since graduation with the whole… well, ya know."

"Shouldn' I be askin' you that?" Jesse asked with a laugh, as he adjusted the black backpack on his shoulders. "I've been good. Getting possessed by a duel spirit and duelin' to save the world is kinda stressful, so I took a few months to rest up and visit home, and now I'm better than ever! I'm back on the duelin' circuit, takin' on the pros. How about you? How've ya been?"

"I've been good," Jaden said with a smile on his face, purposely leaving out the part that he and Yubel had become sort of friends. He didn't think Jesse would want to hear about the duel monster that possessed him. "I've been on and off the pro circuit a couple times, but mostly it's been travelling. I just got back from Italy two weeks ago, but now I'm done with travelling and I'm ready to make my permanent entrance into the pro-dueling circuit."

"No kiddin'?" Jesse asked with a large smile on his face. "Ya gonna compete in that new tournament Pegasus just created?"

Jaden nodded with a childlike smile on his face like the ones he wore in his earlier years of Duel Academy, before the whole Supreme King debacle. "Yeah, the Ancient City tournament! I'm so pumped for it; it sounds like it's going to be awesome! I just hope it lives up to all the hype."

"Well looks like we're gonna find out together! That's the same tournament I'm competin' in!" Jesse exclaimed excitedly.

"No way!"

"Way! I heard that some of the others from Duel Academy are competin' too."

Jaden's heart skipped a beat as he thought about one particular person he wanted to see from Duel Academy. As quickly as the thought came he pushed it out of his mind. He'd been trying to keep up with what all his friends had done after graduating. He knew Syrus had followed in his brother's steps by heading into the pro-dueling circuit while Zane had been working on recovery. He had heard two months ago that Zane's heart was nearly recovered and that he was starting to compete in duels again, hoping to get back into the pro circuit with his brother. Jim had headed back to Australia to compete in the pro circuit there while Axel had decided to go to the US to compete. Hassleberry and Atticus went to the pro circuit too while Chazz had taken up an internship at Kaiba Corp directly under Seto Kaiba. Alexis on the other hand, had started to study abroad, moving from place to place before Jaden could really get a read on where she was. He doubted she'd take time out of her schooling for the tournament, no matter how much he wanted to see her.

_"Aw, Jaden misses the little queen of Obelisk Blue,"_ Yubel said in his head. Jaden mentally glared at the duel spirit, but he was thankful she didn't decide to make an appearance. That may have ended badly with Jesse no more than two feet away.

"That's awesome; I've been dying to see everyone again!" Jaden said happily after he had regained control of his thoughts and emotions—making a mental note to yell at Yubel later.

"Well we better get movin'! Registration ends pretty soon!" Jesse reminded the two-toned brunette. Jaden blinked before looking down at his watch, wincing when he realized that Jesse was right. "Ya're never on time for anythin' are ya, Jay?" Jesse asked with an amused glance.

"Hey, I was on time for something once! It was a Tuesday!" Jaden replied back with a smile on his face as he raced back over to the tree he was just underneath to grab his jacket, bag and duel disk. He was in the middle of putting his duel disk in his bag and slipping his jacket over his shoulders when he ran back to Jesse giving him a thumbs up. "Alright, let's make tracks!"

"Right behind ya Jay!" Jesse responded as they both started taking off, heading towards Kaiba Land where the registration and opening ceremonies were to be held. The two sprinted past crowds of people all heading towards the same place when something buzzed in Jesse's pocket.

"Jess, your pocket's ringing!" Jaden announced, when he noticed that Jesse hadn't bothered to check what it was.

"I know," Jesse said as he and Jaden stopped running at the end of a sidewalk, waiting for the cars to go by. "I know who it is already. That girl's so stubborn she's been textin' me ever since I woke up this mornin'."

"Who?" Jaden asked curiously, wondering just who that girl could be. A small part of his mind piped up that it could potentially be Alexis, but he quickly squashed the idea. It was just hopeful optimism on his part.

Jesse smiled and shook his head almost as if he was thinking of something funny. "My best friend. Well, my best friend that's a girl anyway," Jesse amended as the light changed and he and Jaden shot off again. "She's competin' in the Ancient City tournament too and she's been buggin' me to find out if I was gonna go."

"Oh, so she knows your competing?" Jaden asked as they turned a sharp corner, Kaiba Land appearing just ahead.

"Nope! I told her I was already in the States tryin' to compete on the pro circuit there. She's been blowin' up my phone tryin' to convince me to fly back here and participate," Jesse said with a mischievous grin on his face.

Jaden couldn't help but laugh. The two ran up to the entrance to Kaiba Land where some of the registration tables were. "Alright boys we'll need your names, ages and the type of deck you duel with. You'll want to make sure that you have your passports and ID's on you and you'll need to wear these armbands," the man behind the desk stated as he pushed two white armbands forward with a red circle on the center. "When they make the announcement for all contestants to prepare for the opening ceremonies then you'll show the guards your badges so they'll let you backstage."

"Thanks," Jesse thanked as he finished signing his name and grabbed both their badges. He handed one to Jaden, strapping his own to his arm.

Jaden grabbed the pen and started writing his own name down on the space just under Jesse's. He had finished writing what deck he dueled with and signing his name when something on the paper caught his eye. Frowning, he looked up a couple spaces to see a few names he recognized.

_Chazz Princeton 18 Armed Dragon_

_Zane Truesdale 20 Cyber Dragon_

_Syrus Truesdale 18 Vehicroid_

_Atticus Rhodes 20 Red-Eyes_

_Aster Phoenix 19 Destiny Hero_

Jaden smiled as he saw the familiar names of his friends that were getting ready to compete in the same tournament. He was excited to see them and ask how they've been doing. He was about to walk away when something on the paper jumped out at him. He immediately grabbed the paper back and stared intently at the paper, ignoring the man's voice telling him that he was holding up the line and Jesse asking if he was okay. His gaze was fixated on one name in the middle of the paper, nearly hidden from him. He couldn't believe it. He blinked his eyes and shook his eyes to make sure he was actually seeing the name before his heart stopped.

_Alexis Rhodes 18 Cyber Girl_

"Jay? Ya in there buddy?" Jesse asked in concern as he saw the expression on Jaden's face.

Without warning Jaden dropped the paper and looked up at the man seriously. The man looked confused and backed up in his chair a bit. "There was a girl that was just here to register. A couple inches shorter than me with long gold hair and eyes, probably wearing something blue, right?" Jaden guessed. The man looked confused for a second before nodding. "Where'd she go?"

"Uh… she asked where she should go to wait and I suggested the exhibition duels going on in Dueling Arena A. Why?"

Jaden took off like a rocket, not bothering to answer his question. He was vaguely aware of Jesse falling into step behind him and asking where it was that he was going, but he couldn't stop. He just kept running, turning to head in the direction of Dueling Arena A. He saw it ahead and sprinted faster, bursting through the doors and startling some of the kids and duelists closest to the doors. He didn't dwell on that however as he started to scan the crowd. He vaguely noticed a duel going on and some faces but not the one he was looking for.

Just as he was about to give up he spotted her. She was surrounded by Chazz—who had given up his black cloak look for a black business suit—Atticus—who still rocked the Hawaiian shirt and shorts—Zane—who was wearing a white t-shirt and jeans—Syrus—who was wearing a green shirt and white shorts—and Aster—who was still wearing his same grey suit. He didn't dwell on them however. They slowly faded to the background as he looked at her. She was wearing a blue tank top with a white tennis skirt and white sneakers with her hair down and long as always. She was laughing at something that Atticus had said, her light laughter bringing a smile to Jaden's face when he realized she truly was there.

"Alexis!" Jaden called out enthusiastically, unable to remove the large smile from his face. Alexis—and the other boys—all turned to see who it was that had called her. Her face had gone from one of mild confusion to one of shock as she looked at Jaden, their eyes locking. The shock soon melted away into a beautiful smile as she took a deep breath.

"Jaden."


	2. Chapter 2

Yugioh GX: The Ancient City Tournament

"Jaden."

Jaden beamed as he saw Alexis. The blonde girl took off running for Jaden, throwing her arms around his neck in a hug. Jaden laughed and wrapped his arms around her waist, lifting her up into a hug, vaguely aware of the laughs and voices of his other friends as they joined in the hug. He really didn't pay any attention to them though. He focused on the blonde girl in his arms and the feel of her cheek against his neck.

"Jaden I can't believe your back!" Syrus cheered out loudly, snapping Jaden out of it.

The two-toned brunette laughed and lowered Alexis down before looking at all his other friends. "It's good to see you guys again! I've missed you guys!" Jaden said with a smile on his face.

"What, I don' get any love?" Jesse asked with a mock pout on his face.

Atticus was the first to move over to the blunette with a smile on his face. "Hey there Jess, it's great to see you too!" Atticus exclaimed with a laugh as he hugged the southerner. Everyone went through the rounds of hugging and talking to each other about how they've been, laughing and smiling as they swapped stories.

"Jaden Yuki, I didn't expect to see you here," Alexis spoke up with a smile on her face as she looked at the former Slifer.

Jaden looked at her with a sheepish expression and scratched the back of his head with a shrug. "What can I say? I did the whole travelling thing, so I thought it was time I came back to Domino and start my pro-dueling career! What about you? I thought you were studying abroad?" Jaden inquired.

"Lexi flunked out."

The backhand that Alexis sent her brothers' way caused the group to laugh as she glared at him. "I did _not_ flunk out Atty," Alexis hissed at her brother, causing him to recoil. "I passed my first semester at the Study Abroad program in France, but I got bored. They didn't really have us dueling as much as we were reading and studying tactics. It was so boring, so I decided to drop out and hit up the pro-dueling circuit."

"Seems like we all had the same idea," Zane commented.

"Yeah, speakin' of, how are ya feelin' Zane? Ya sure you should be duelin'?" Jesse questioned with a quirked eyebrow.

Zane nodded confidently. "I'll be fine. I already got the all clear by my doctor and I've dueled in a few pro matches, so I think I don't have anything to worry about."

"Yeah, Zane and I practiced dueling before he started back in the pro-circuit," Syrus said excitedly.

Jaden smiled. "That's awesome Sy, and I hear you're on the circuit. You've doing pretty good I hear too."

"Thanks Jay! I've been trying!" Syrus beamed as he looked up at his friend.

"So Chazz, how's interning with Kaiba?" Jaden asked curiously.

Chazz rolled his eyes a bit. "Kaiba's an ego maniac—"

"I feel like this is a pot/kettle situation."

"—but he's a good boss and is pretty fair," Chazz completed, glaring at Aster who had made the snippy remark. Aster merely smiled at Chazz before something clicked in his mind. He turned to look at Jesse with a confused look on his face. He quirked an eyebrow and blinked a bit, wondering if Jesse was actually there in front of him. He nudged the blunette's shoulder before he crossed his arms in front of his chest and narrowed his eyes.

"Jesse, what are you doing here?"

"Huh?" The blunette said in confusion.

"Danni's been complaining about how you're in the States all morning and can't compete today," Aster explained with a confused look on his face. It took only seconds after seeing Jesse's mischievous grin for the confusion to melt off of Aster's face and for it to be replaced with understanding. "You lied to Danni."

"Now lie is such an ugly word…"

Jaden frowned in confusion as he heard the name Danni. It seemed familiar. He'd definitely heard it before, but he couldn't place where. It was on the tip of his tongue, he could feel it. He just had to remember where he had heard it… Suddenly it came to Jaden why the name was so familiar, and why he'd heard it before. He turned to look at his blunette friend—who had been in the middle of saying something to Aster about surprising Danni—and looked at him in shock.

"Wait a second, there's no way you're talking about Daniela Muto are you?"

Jesse nodded with a confused look on his face. "Uh yeah, why?"

Chazz, Syrus, Atticus, and Alexis all joined Jaden in looking at Jesse in shock. "Daniela Muto," Syrus said in disbelief.

"She prefers to be called Danni, not Daniela," Jesse pointed out with a shrug. "She only gets called Daniela by her grandpa or when she's in trouble."

"You're friends with Daniela Muto?" Alexis asked incredulously.

"Why is that such a big deal?" Jesse asked in confusion as to why his friendship with Danni would be such a big deal.

"Daniela Muto is the younger sister of the King of Games, Yugi Muto. She's a dueling prodigy and is known by fans and a lot of pro duelists as the Princess of Games. She's been dueling since she was five and by the time she was seven she was competing in Industrial Illusions tournaments and reaching the semi-finals, competing against people such as Seto Kaiba, Joey Wheeler, and even her older brother. By nine she had won her very first tournament. Pegasus had taken an interest in her and even decided to make an entire deck of unique cards for her. She's been in the list of top fifteen duelists and in the top five female duelists for the past two years. She would've been in the top for much longer, but her 'official' pro-circuit career started when she turned sixteen," Chazz rattled off.

Jaden blinked. "How did you know all that?"

"Kaiba had me create profiles on all duelists he thought had the potential to offer him a challenge."

"Kaiba see's Danni as a threat?" Zane asked geninuely surprised.

Chazz shrugged. "Her and a couple others."

"Well she is a good duelist," Aster rationalized.

Atticus held up his hands and waved them about frantically, trying to get the groups attention. Once he was sure they were all paying attention he cleared his throat. "Okay, back to the matter at hand, how do you know her?"

"My cousin knew her brother Yugi. They met at some tournament," Jesse said with a shrug. "They decided to have some sorta get together thing so my cousin Valon took me with him since I was visitin' him at the time. I was seven, so meetin' all the pros was super exciting, but they were talkin' about things I really didn't know about. So I hung out with Danni, who was the same age as me and we just hit it off. From then on we harassed our families to let us spend time together. We grew up together and we became best friends. We'd go on each other's family vacations and we'd compete in tournaments together. We even went to North Academy together before we got transferred. When Jim, Axel, Adrian and I got sent to Duel Academy with you guys, Danni got shipped off to South Academy with kids from the other academies. We went to a tournament together after graduation, but now she thinks I'm in the states so I'm gettin' ready to surprise her," Jesse explained with a smile on his face.

"Aw, that's actually pretty sweet," Alexis tossing Jesse a smile.

Aster scoffed. "Yeah, sweet until Danni finds out."

"Danni's gonna kill you for lying to her," Zane agreed, knowing that the small girl had a fiery temper and her biggest pet peeve was when people lied to her.

Syrus frowned. "You know her too?"

"I met her on the pro-circuit before the whole Hell Kaiser thing."

**"Attention all duelists competing in the Ancient City Tournament, please proceed to the lower level of the Kaiba Dome to prepare for opening ceremonies. All other duelists please head to the Kaiba Dome in order to find seats for the festivities."**

Jaden smiled upon hearing the announcement being made over the intercom before he turned to look at his friends. "Looks like that's us you guys! We better head over there!" Jaden exclaimed excitedly, motioning for everyone to start moving. The group all walked out of the Dueling Arena A and started to head towards the Kaiba Dome. Atticus, Zane, and Chazz were walking at the front of the group talking about the duelists that could be pretty tough during the tournament, while Jesse, Syrus, and Aster walked behind them talking about Danni—whom they had discovered Syrus had a small crush on. At the very back of the group, Jaden and Alexis walked in silence.

"This is nice," Alexis spoke up suddenly, catching Jaden's attention. The two-toned brunette looked over at the peaceful and joyful look that graced the blonde's features as she looked ahead of them at the others. She looked over at Jaden and smiled dazzlingly, gesturing vaguely to their friends. "Everyone being together like this… it's like old times. It's just something I've missed and it's nice to see again."

"Yeah I know what you mean. It's been a while since we've all been together like this. I missed you. Uh… you _guys_. I missed you guys," Jaden quickly amended when he realized what he said. His face turned red as he averted his eyes so that he was watching Jesse's back as he hit Aster in the shoulder for some reason. Jaden stiffened slightly as he felt Alexis's hand wrap around his arm, and her stepping closer to him. Jaden looked down at Alexis in confusion before he saw that she was smiling up at him.

"I missed you too Jaden."

Jaden beamed.

"Hey you two, pick up the pace!" Atticus called out, with a grin on his face.

Jaden and Alexis both blushed before they started walking a bit faster to join the group, stepping away from one another. While other duelists who weren't competing headed towards the main doors, the gang went towards the back doors, just to the left of the main doors. At the doors were security guards checking armbands and directing the duelists as to where to go. The group entered the doors, got checked, and went down the stairs directly in front of them to the lower levels. The hallway was full of excited voices as they walked along before the hall opened up into the large area just underneath the stage. There were metal beams and gears all around them. The most prominent item however was the large platform that rose up to the main arena during special ceremonies.

"All competitors please wait for the opening ceremonies to begin! Once we give the signal you will all find a spot on the platform! Spots are designated by black circles on the ground! You will all find an individual spot to stand on! Two people may not fit on one spot unless specifically told otherwise! Until this time, feel free to mingle and speak with your fellow duelists!" One of the supervisors called out towards everyone.

As soon as he was done speaking, everyone broke off to mingle and talk to the other duelists, either catching up or scoping out the competition. "Whoa, this is so cool!" Jaden beamed as he looked around in amazement. "I've never seen anything like this!"

"That's because you've been out globetrotting," Alexis reminded him as she tugged him forward to catch up with the group that had already moved into the center of the room. They spotted Atticus in the middle of talking to some pro-duelists they hadn't met yet, seeming to annoy them while Zane, Aster, Chazz, Jesse, and Syrus all watched in amusement. "Oh gosh, Atty's started already."

"Something's just never change, huh?" Jaden laughed.

Just as Jaden and Alexis were about to catch up to the group, someone accidentally bumped into them, knocking the two of them to the ground. "Aw man, sorry bout dat!" A tall shaggy blonde haired boy apologized as he reached down to help Alexis up before he helped Jaden.

"Hey don't worry about it, it was just—" Jaden cut himself off as he actually looked at the blonde boy. He could feel his inner child screaming in excitement as he placed the face of the very familiar looking duelist. "You're Joey Wheeler!"

Joey smiled and nodded, adjusting his red wife beater and dusting the dirt off on his ripped jeans. "Ya, that's me! Joey Wheeler, duelist extraordinaire!"

"I know that voice."

Joey turned at the sound of the southern accent and smiled as he spotted Jesse. "Jess! What are ya doin' here! Ya're supposed ta be in da states!"

"I may have fudged the truth a bit when talkin' to Danni earlier," Jesse admitted, causing Joey to grin at him.

"She's not gonna be too happy," Joey sing-songed, looking more than a bit amused by the idea of what Danni would do to the blunette.

Jesse shrugged. "She'll be happy to see me, I guarantee it… it just may take a bit for her to get over the whole lying thing. Anyway, let me introduce ya to my friends. Joey this is Jaden, Alexis—whom ya've met—Atticus, Chazz, Zane, and Syrus. Guys I'm sure Joey needs no introduction."

"Nice ta meet ya," Joey said with a smile. "Hey Aster," Joey added on, having already known the silver haired boy. Aster nodded towards Joey with a smile.

"Can I get your autograph?!" Syrus asked excitedly, appearing in front of Joey with an autograph book and pen in hand. He looked like he was about to bubble over with excitement as he looked at the veteran duelist.

Joey blinked at the sudden appearance of the powder blunette before he smiled. "Sure, why not!" He grabbed the autograph book and signed his name and doodled a picture of a miniature Red Eyes Black Dragon next to it. He handed it back causing Syrus to beam. Joey smiled. "If ya want ta follow me den ya can meet the rest of da gang! I'm sure dat Yugi wouldn't mind signin' some autographs."

"Really? You're serious?" Jaden asked excitedly.

Joey nodded and slung an arm around Jesse's shoulders, pretending to strangle him. "Ya kiddin'? Any friend of Jesse's is a friend of mine!" Joey answered enthusiastically before herding them all together and nudging them forward. "C'mon, let's go meet the others!" The gang all moved forward—Jesse suspiciously hiding behind the entire group and using Joey as a sort of shield—Syrus, Jaden, and Atticus all buzzing in excitement, while Chazz, Zane, and Alexis were relatively calm. They moved through the crowd of duelists before they found a small door along one of the walls. "Kaiba didn't feel like interacting with da other duelists," was Joey's explanation before he opened the door and walked in, gesturing for the others to follow. The young duelists—excluding Aster and Zane—all nearly jumped up and down with excitement at what they saw.

The room was full of couches, a TV, a table full of food and drinks, and four of the best pro duelists in the world. Mai Valentine was perched on one of the couches, in the middle of saying something. She was wearing a purple mini skirt, a white tube top that showed a bit of her midriff, a purple jacket and black boots. Leaning against one of the walls was Seto Kaiba himself, wearing a pair of black jeans, a dark t-shirt, black boots, and his long white coat. He had been looking at the TV that showed everything that was going on just above them in the Kaiba Dome, but soon turned to stare at the group just as the door opened. On the other couch were the dueling siblings and the royalty of the dueling world, Yugi and Danni Muto. Yugi was wearing his signature blue pants, black muscle shirt, black boots, blue jacket, blue choker and a duel monsters card pendant hanging from his neck. Danni was wearing a purple halter top, denim shorts that ended at mid-thigh, black knee-length boots and her own duel monsters card pendant. Her hair was dark brown and as she shifted in the light a few strands of her hair looked gold and red. Yugi was sitting on the couch with his sister's legs in his lap as she lounged on the couch and talked with Mai.

"Hey Joey, looks like you found Aster! And it's good to see you up and around Zane. Who are your new friends?" Mai asked as she looked towards her blonde boyfriend and the group of duelists with him.

"Syrus Truesdale, Atticus Rhodes, Alexis Rhodes and Jaden Yuki. And you all know my intern, Chazz Princeton," Kaiba responded before anyone else could answer. At the confused looks he was receiving from everyone he merely rolled his eyes. "I make it a point of learning the names and faces of my top graduating students."

"Well it's very nice to meet you all," Yugi said with a large smile on his face. He then looked at Jaden with a knowing look. "Although, I've already had the pleasure of meeting one of you, I just never caught your name. How is Winged Kuriboh?"

"He's good," Jaden answered eagerly. "He's always watching my back."

"He is very reliable. I'm glad to hear he's been helping you."

"Hey I recognize you," Danni said randomly as she sat up and looked towards Alexis. Alexis blinked in confusion and pointed to herself. "Yeah, you! Were you in France recently?"

"Yeah, for my Study Abroad program. I was studying there," Alexis answered in slight confusion as to how Danni had known her.

"Do you remember that little issue at a club called 'Rouge'?"

Alexis's face flared red at the realization of where Danni was going with her story. "You were there that night?" Alexis asked with a twinge of embarrassment in her tone.

"Yeah, I was," Danni said with a knowing smile. "Remember the girl wearing the red dress and the black mask?"

"That was you?" Alexis asked in shock.

Danni nodded and laughed. "Yeah, that was me! It was pretty crazy, wasn't it? But hey, you can dance pretty well."

"As can you," Alexis retorted with a smile.

"Uh… do we even want to know this story?" Jaden asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"Not really," Alexis and Danni said in unison before they both started laughing. "Alexis, I feel like this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

"I feel like you're right."

"Hey Danni," Joey spoke up suddenly, inching his way forward and causing an awkward shuffle and a curse to sound just behind him, courtesy of Jesse who was still using him as a shield to hide himself. Aster and Zane smartly stepped away from Joey—Zane grabbing Syrus and dragging him along—while motioning for Atticus, Jaden, and Alexis to step aside as well. The three quickly did what they were told, while the pros watched in confusion. Kaiba, with his height advantage, was able to see what was going on and shook his head, while Mai, Yugi, and Danni looked on at Joey in confusion. "Have ya been able ta get Jesse ta answer his phone?"

Immediately the smile that had been on Danni's face turned into a frown before settling into a pout. She rested her chin in her hands and shook her head. "No, he hasn't been answering my calls or texting back. He's being a butthead," Danni said with a sigh.

Mai nodded. "We've been talking about ways to get back at him," she said mischievously. "Some of our ideas have been hair dye, itching powder, and fireworks."

Danni looked up at Aster with a small smile. "Aster, I now nominate you to my new best friend seeing as Jesse's dropping the ball."

"Well ya see now that may cause some problems with me and Aster, seein' as ya're _my_ best friend," Jesse spoke up as he stepped out from behind Joey.

A large smile exploded onto Danni's face at the sight of her blunette friend. She jumped to her feet and ran over to Jesse, throwing her arms around his neck in a hug. Jesse easily caught her and laughed as he lifted her off the ground. "Jesse! You're supposed to be in the states!" Danni spoke up excitedly. Danni blinked for a second as she pondered what she said before something clicked in her head. "You jerk!" Danni said as she hit Jesse's shoulder, forcing the blunette to put her down. As soon as her feet touched the ground she shoved him slightly and followed up with a punch to his shoulder, causing him to wince. "You lied to me didn't you? You never were in the states!"

"It's good to see you Jesse," Yugi piped up, before his sister could truly pounce on the southerner.

"Good to see ya too Yugi!" Jesse quickly said, trying to avoid Danni's wrath. He then turned his attention to the CEO of Kaiba Corp, hoping to turn Danni's attention away from him. "How're you Kaiba?"

Kaiba merely crossed his arms and shook his head. "Don't look to me for any help. I rather enjoy watching Danni tear into people."

"Thanks Kaiba," Danni said with a smile as she looked over to him. "You're so sweet."

Chazz's snort-turned-cough caused Kaiba to glare at his intern.

"C-Can I get an autograph?"

Everyone in the room silenced before looking to Syrus who was blushing a bright red, holding his autograph book out to Danni. Jesse had never been so happy to have Syrus as a friend as he was at that point in time. Danni's annoyed mood flew out the window as she looked at the powder blunette and nodded enthusiastically. "Of course! Syrus right?" Syrus merely nodded, unable to speak as Danni took his autograph book and signed it. When she gave it back, Danni kissed Syrus on the cheek, causing the boy to turn a darker shade of red before he passed out, falling to the ground with a loud thud. "Oh god, is he okay?" Danni asked in worry, kneeling beside the small blunette.

"Way to go Danni. You killed my brother," Zane deadpanned as he walked over to the table to grab a bottle of water.

"I didn't mean to!"

"It happens," Alexis shrugged with a smile on her face.

Atticus grinned moving up next to Danni. "So, are you giving out any more free kisses?"

"No," Yugi, Kaiba, Joey, Jesse, and Danni all said at once. The boys had noticeably more venom in their voice at the statement while Danni had just laughed. She didn't pay much attention to Atticus as she grabbed Syrus's autograph book and pen and walked it over to Mai and Kaiba, holding it out to them so that they could sign it while the small blunette was still passed out.

"Please forgive my brother. We haven't gotten him trained yet," Alexis said, grabbing her brother's ears painfully, despite his arguing and whining. Zane quickly opened up a water bottle and poured some onto Syrus's face, causing him to sit up with a start as he sputtered and waved around frantically.

"Hey guys, you'll want to look at this," Mai spoke up as she pointed at the TV. Everyone quickly moved to huddle around the TV, trying to see what Mai was talking about. Yugi finished signing Syrus's autograph book and handed it back to him before he walked up behind his sister to look at the screen. On the screen was an image of all the other duelists, piling into their seats, while some man with dark red hair and auburn eyes stood in the middle of the stage with a microphone in his hand. "I thought Pegasus was supposed to be the host of this tournament?" Mai asked, looking over her shoulder to stare at Kaiba in confusion.

"Pegasus _is_ supposed to be the host," Kaiba retorted with a narrow stare.

"So who is dis guy?" Joey asked with a confused expression on his face.

"All duelists please locate a spot on the underground stage! The opening ceremonies are about to begin!"

Yugi narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Looks like we're about to find out."

The group of duelists all piled out, heading towards the main floor where all the other duelists were scrambling to find spots. "You excited for this?" Jaden asked as he judged Jesse's shoulder, the two walking right beside one another.

Jesse nodded excitedly. "Totally, this is gonna be fun!" Jesse exclaimed just as the others all ran by, trying to find a spot. "But we might wanna hurry!" The two boys quickly picked up their pace and jumped onto a circle close by one another. Alexis hopped onto a circle just behind Jaden, with Syrus and Zane hopping onto one on either side of her. Aster picked on just in front of Jesse, while Chazz and Atticus picked ones just behind Alexis. After the teens were able to find spots, they looked over to see Joey, Mai, Yugi, Kaiba, and Danni all strolling by at a leisurely pace while everyone else scrambled around. "Hurry up and grab a spot, guys!" Jesse advised, gesturing to ones around them.

"We've already got one," Kaiba answered easily, going towards the six spots grouped into a circle at the dead center of the stage. Yugi stood at the middle one on the left side of the half of the circle with Joey and Kaiba on either side of him.

Danni and Mai started to head over to their spots when someone walked by and shoulder-checked Danni roughly, causing her to stumble back slightly. The gang all watched as Danni whipped around in anger to come face to face with her rival and the Queen of the Archfiends, Frankie Johnson. The girl was decked out in black leather pants, black boots, a black corset and a black leather jacket. Her hair was dyed platinum blonde and her face was done with far too much make-up, making her brown eyes seem darker. "Aw crap," Jesse muttered as he watched the scene.

"This won't end well," Aster agreed, turning around to send the Southern boy a worried look.

"What won't?" Jaden asked in confusion.

"Just watch," Aster advised, pointing to the two girls.

"Frankie," Danni muttered in a tight tone.

Frankie smirked. "Danni. How's life being the petty princess of the dueling world?"

"Excuse me?" Danni asked with a quirked eyebrow as she took a step closer to the girl.

"You heard me you pampered princess. You're the 'it' girl in the dueling world just because your brother is Yugi Muto," Frankie hissed, narrowing her eyes at the girl. "You have no talent whatsoever and the only reason you're here is because your friends with the top three male duelists. Just face it, if it wasn't for that, you wouldn't be able to even step foot in here."

"Oh really? Is that why you lose to me every time we duel?" Danni quipped with a satisfied smirk.

Frankie's jaw set and her hands clenched into fists. She looked like she sincerely wanted to punch Danni in the face, and Danni was very aware of that fact. "Danni, get on a circle," Yugi called over to his shoulder after seeing the situation his sister was in. Danni looked over at Yugi with a slight frown, causing Yugi to look at her seriously. "Now, Danni." Danni sighed before she walked by Frankie, shoulder-checking the blonde as she went to stand on the circle behind Yugi's and next to Mai, turning her back to her brother as she was told to do when Seto, Yugi, Joey, Mai and her were discussing it earlier. Frankie glared at Danni and walked up next to her to stand on the circle on her other side, facing out just like the other five duelists.

"They don't seem like they like each other all that much," Alexis muttered.

"Oh they _hate_ each other," Aster assured with a small laugh. "Frankie's sore that Danni's five years younger than her and she's ranked lower than her in the female duelists. It also doesn't help that every time Frankie and Danni have dueled, Danni's always come out on top."

"Frankie looked like she was ready to start swinging," Jaden pointed out.

Jesse nodded. "She probably was. Frankie's always gettin' into fist fights and screamin' matches with other duelists. Yugi, Seto, Joey, Tristan, or I usually step in before Frankie can start swingin' at Danni. Danni's never been in a fight in her life, so we try to make sure we're with her as much as possible when Frankie's around."

**"Ladies, gentlemen, and duelists of all ages, lend me your ears!"** A loud voice said over the speaker system above them. All of the duelists started to silence, straining to listen to the speaker above them. **"Our dear Maximillion Pegasus sadly could not be here with us this fine morning and in his absence, I shall be taking over. My name is Derrick Lane and I shall be your humble host of the Ancient City Tournament!"**

"Ya ever hear of dis Derrick Lane?" Joey asked, looking towards Yugi and Kaiba as cheers erupted overhead.

"Not at all," Kaiba replied without looking over at the blonde. He narrowed his eyes slightly as he thought hard. "If he was someone in the dueling world, I'd know."

"So what is he doing here?" Mai asked.

"Good question."

**"This tournament will be a unique one, not only testing the dueling toughness of our contestants, but their mental, physical, and emotional toughness as well! It will be a grueling challenge for all our contestants and only the strongest will survive! And we have some of the best of the best duelists from all around the world here with us! Now why don't we give a warm round of applause to bring them out!" **The crowd immediately roared above them.

One of the spots started to rise up—startling the male duelist on it—as Derrick started to introduce them. It soon became apparent to all the other duelists what the point of standing on the circles was as Derrick continued to call out duelists only for the circles to raise up to the stage above them. Nearly all the other duelists were raised up when Syrus's circle started to go up. He panicked momentarily before he disappeared through the stage. **"Syrus Truesdale, the Vehicroid duelist!"**

Zane's circle started moving up next, but looked completely at ease, keeping his arms crossed over his chest and grinning slightly. **"Making his return back to the pro-dueling circuit we have Zane Truesdale the Cyber Dragon duelist!"**

Alexis and Atticus' circles started moving up simultaneously, confusing the two duelists as they were lifted up. Alexis tossed Jaden a half smile before she completely disappeared while Atticus waved and grinned broadly. **"Joining us we have two of the top duelists from Duel Academy Island! We have the dueling siblings of Atticus and Alexis Rhodes, the Red Eyes and Cyber Girl duelists!"**

Jaden's platform started going up shortly after. He looked around on his platform in awe and excitement as he looked down at his friends still underneath him. "See ya up there Jay!" Jesse called out with a grin before the blunette disappeared from sight. Jaden looked up as light started to hit him and shielded his eyes. **"Now the top duelist from Duel Academy Island, we have Jaden Yuki, the Neospacian Duelist!" **Jaden immediately heard the crowd of cheering spectators, looking around and spotting hundred upon thousands of people surrounding them in the Kaiba Dome. He blinked in surprise as he looked around him at the other duelists all looking around. He saw his face on the big screen and grinned in excitement. It was beyond cool.

**"Also from Duel Academy, and now the current intern to the second best duelist in the world, we are joined by Chazz Princeton, the Armed Dragon Duelist!"** Jaden turned just in time to see Chazz appear from the underground area, looking nonchalant. A mechanical whirring caught Jaden's attention from Jesse's area. **"Joining us from South Duel Academy is the Crystal Beast Duelist, Jesse Anderson!" **Jesse's platform lifted up and he was immediately grinning and waving to the crowd, causing a large applause. **"Next we have Aster Phoenix, the Destiny Hero duelist!"** Aster appeared looking every bit as confident as Jesse did, smiling to the crowd and waving, eliciting the same reaction. Suddenly all the lights dimmed and six spotlights appeared in the six spots that were in a circle on the stage. **"Now the moment you've all been waiting for! We're about to introduce our six duelists to beat in this competition. Bringing to you now, we have Joey Wheeler, the Red Eyes duelist, Mai Valentine, the Harpie Lady duelist, Frankie Johnson, the Queen of the Archfiends, Seto Kaiba, the Dragon duelist and our royalty of the dueling world, the spellcaster siblings that have been taking the dueling world by storm! We have our Princess Daniela Muto and ****_the_**** King of Games Yugi Muto!"** The six platforms rose in the order of being called, with all six duelists having their heads lowered down. As soon as all the platforms stopped moving, the six lifted their heads simultaneously and looked out at the crowd with a confident look on their face. Ear shattering applause ripped through the arena.

"Okay, that's _so_ cool," Jaden whispered over towards Jesse, who merely nodded.

As soon as the cheers died down, the lights in the arena brightened back to normal as the spotlight turned towards Derrick, standing off on a separate portion of the stage. **"That's right folks; we've got the best of the best here with us, so let's not leave them hanging any longer! I'm sure they're just as excited to hear about the Ancient City tournament as you are!" **Cheers answered him. **"Alright, so this is how the tournament is going to work this year. All off these fine duelists that you see before me are going to be competing in a test of not only their dueling prowess, but a test of their wits, strength, and their willpowers! This is going to be a competition never before attempted, and with this new approach at a tournament, we'll be having some new tech!" **

With a snap of his fingers, the stage beside him rose up to his hip with a metal box on it. He quickly opened up the box and picked something up for the audience to see. "What is it?" Syrus asked loud enough so his friends could hear. Jaden strained his eyes but couldn't make it out.

"Look on the big screen," Aster advised, pointing to the large screen. On it they could see that Derrick was holding up what looked like a pair of glasses. The only exception was that instead of individual lenses, the whole thing was completely connected with one piece of glass that wrapped around and merely appeared in the shape of conventional glasses. It was a clear piece of glass with the parts of the glasses that hooked around the ears being a black color. There were a few small buttons on the side of the glasses as well as 'Yugi Muto' printed on one side in gold. In his other hand there was something that looked like the Bio-band systems used at Duel Academy, except it was black, smaller, and had no gem. Instead it was streamline with Yugi's name printed in gold as well.

"What in the world is that?" Jaden muttered.

**"These are the new Line-of-Sight and Bio-Tracker systems developed by Kaiba Corp! He has so generously allowed us to use these new technologies in order to enhance the experience of our competition! The LOS system are glasses that a duelist wears that not only allows him to pull up various maps, bios and statistics on every duelist, but has the capability of recording what a duelist is seeing and feeding it directly back to us to view in real time! Not only that but it can switch it infrared mode as well so the duelist—and the viewers—can still see in the dark! Now the Bio-Tracker system is a wristband that monitors the location of a duelist, their heart rate and other vital signs. It allows us to know exactly where they are and how they are doing at all times so that we can be sure that all our duelists are perfectly safe!" **Derrick held the LOS and Bio-Tracker in one hand before he reached in and pulled out a small touch screen device. **"And lastly we have our Com-Sat system! The CSS is a small device used to communicate. All of the CSS will have the phone numbers of each duelist, staff member, and myself, listed in it so that duelists may feel free to message or call anyone of their choice. It will also be how I will communicate with the duelists when they're at the tournament site! As if that wasn't all, the CSS can be used to pull up the various items that you are able to view on your LOS, so the two work in conjunction with one another!"**

"Man, it looks like they're going all out for this thing," Atticus commented with an excited grin on his face.

Alexis nodded. "Yeah, all of these precautions and devices are a nice touch. It's nice to know we'll be safe wherever we are."

**"To demonstrate our new technologies we'll have Yugi Muto, the King of Games, step forward to give these a try!" **

Yugi—obviously surprised—shot a look at Kaiba as the spotlight hit him. The billionaire sent a look to the King of Games that meant he was just as surprised as Yugi, but to go along with it. Yugi hesitated a few seconds before he walked off of his platform and towards Derrick near the front of the stage. Yugi stuck his hand out for Derrick to attach the Bio-Tracker. The device secured on his wrist with a _'click'_ before grooves in the wristband started to glow red. On the big screen a picture of Yugi appeared next to a list of details. It said his name, his age, his birthday, his deck, his ranking, his family members, his friends, and even his favorite food. Underneath that information there was a separate section that showed what his heart rate at that current moment was, his breathing rate, and his blood type. Yugi looked up at the screen in mild shock that the little device had all that information on him.

"Creepy," Joey muttered as he looked at the screen.

Yugi then took the CSS and turned it on only for it to say **"Welcome Yugi Muto"** on the screen, before showing his face on the background. Some of the applications at the forefront of the screen were 'Call' 'Message' 'Contacts' and 'Maps' and as he scrolled through he could see 'Bios' 'Statistics' 'Rankings' and 'Record' on some of the other pages of aps. He furrowed his eyebrows in interest as he took the LOS from Derricks hand and placed it over his eyes. Derrick motioned for him to press the button on the side of the glasses and Yugi did so, causing the glasses to turn on. Now on the screen, instead of his statistics, there was a video of what Yugi was seeing. He looked around, causing the video to swivel so the audience could tell it really was what the King of Games was seeing.

**"Isn't this something folks?" **Derrick exclaimed excitedly. **"Now, all that needs to be done in order to switch to infrared mode is to press the second button on the side of the glasses, and if you wish to sync your LOS to what is on your CSS screen, you press the third button! The first button is what is used to start and stop recording!"**

"This is extraordinary," Yugi commented as he continued to look around before pressing the first button.

Derrick smiled and gestured so Yugi returned back to his spot—Joey immediately trying to touch the new toys. **"Now all tech will be inscribed with the duelists names on the side so there are no confusions as to whose is whose. When watching the duels on the Dueling Channel, you will see what our producers and directors deem is best at the time, mixing feed from our cameras at the tournament site and the live feed, but there is also the option of watching it online at our website ****_ Duelist_Cams_****. On the website you'll be able to choose which duelist you'll want to watch and follow and you'll be able to switch through the live feed at your leisure!"**

"They made a website?" Jaden asked in confusion.

Zane nodded. "This is supposed to be the tournament of the decade. A lot of money is going into it, and they're trying to play off the hype."

**"In order to eliminate some of the competitors in this tournament, you will all be playing for Glyph Capsules,"** Derrick announced holding up a small golden sphere that looked around the size of a quarter. On them were intricately designed Egyptian Glyphs covering the small capsule.** "You will need ten Glyph Capsules in order to advance to the next round of competition, and all those who do not have ten Glyph Capsules at the end of a week will be eliminated! But now, it's down to the rules! Now in this tournament there are only three rules! Number 1: You cannot remove your LOS or Bio-Trackers and the only time you are to cease recording is when you are going to sleep or when you're changing and/or using the restroom. Number 2: If you require medical assistance at any time during the tournament you are required to report to the nearest medical tent, no exceptions! EMT's will help you to the best of their abilities, and they will suggest whether or not you should continue in the tournament, but the final decision is solely yours! And Number 3: Stealing Glyphs is forbidden and if you are caught you will be automatically eliminated from the tournament! Everything else is fair game in the tournament!"**

"So it's a free for all," Chazz commented with a quirked eyebrow.

**"The location of the tournament is to remain a secret, even to all of the duelists! In two days, at the start of the tournament, each duelist will be picked up at their homes and driven to an airport where they will be taken to the location! Until then, they duelists will live in suspense, and you will be able to see their preparations because after the dinner for all contestants tonight, all the duelists will receive their LOS. And tomorrow morning will be the start of the LOS live feed from all duelists!"**

The crowd erupted into cheers at Derrick's exclamation, all eager to see the new LOS system in action. It was a brilliant idea. Allowing fans to see what some of their favorite duelists did preparing for a tournament and it gave fans an inside look as to what their idols were truly like. It was a perfect marketing strategy that was bound to rake in a lot of viewers. All of the duelists seemed excited by the idea too, eager to show a side of themselves that the viewers never really got to see.

Fireworks shot into the sky as Derrick gestured towards all the duelists behind him. **"Here are our competitors folks! Let's give them a warm round of applause as they prepare for the tournament of their lives! Good luck to all of you and may the best duelist win!"**


	3. Chapter 3

Yugioh GX: The Ancient City Tournament

As soon as the opening ceremonies were through the duelists were lowered back down into the underground part of the stage, causing a large uproar of excited voices and chattering to flood the area. While the other duelists were herded out of the underground stage, Jaden and the gang looked around in excitement. "This is going to be so awesome!" Jaden cheered, jumping up and down.

Jesse nodded. "No doubt! I wonder where the tournament is gonna take place!"

"It's kinda odd that they're not telling us, don't you think?" Alexis asked with a quirked eyebrow.

Before anyone answered a guard walked over to them and started herding them together. "You must all exit the area immediately. No one is allowed to be down here after the opening ceremonies." He started to grab for Alexis's arm before a hand grabbed his shoulder. He turned around and saw Danni smiling at him.

"Hey there big guy, there's no need to kick them out, they're cool," Danni assured, walking over and putting an arm around Alexis's neck as if proving that they were supposed to be there. "I'm gonna take them with me to head over to the VIP lounge so we can relax before the dinner. That's not a problem, right?" Danni asked poking out her lips in a pout and batting her eyelashes. The guard immediately caved and shook his head. "Thanks, you're a sweetheart. You have a good day!" He turned and walked away while Danni turned to look at the group.

"Nicely done," Aster laughed.

"We're going to the VIP lounge?" Atticus asked excitedly.

Danni nodded. "Yup, we've got a few hours before the dinner starts and since it's gonna be in the ballroom, we figured we could just hang around here. C'mon, we'll take the rail car."

"Rail car?" Zane asked with a quirked eyebrow.

Danni gestured for the group to follow her as they walked towards a corner of the room towards a hallway. They walked for a while before they arrived at a large hall that looked like a mini subway. There was a platform and a metal rail just under it. The walls and floor were completely white, looking like a futuristic subway. "So this is what Kaiba was working on," Chazz muttered before looking to the others who seemed confused. "Kaiba was working on a system to get staff and VIPs across places in Kaiba Land faster and without being attacked by mobs of fans. I guess this is what he came up with."

"This place is so cool!" Alexis smiled, looking around.

A rumbling sound caught everyone's attention. Danni grinned. "If you will all take a step back please?" Everyone quickly did as they were told just as a silver subway car drove in and pulled to a stop in front of them. The doors slid open and Danni stepped in. When she noticed only Chazz and Aster stepped in behind her she smiled. "It's not gonna kill you. C'mon."

The gang all piled onto the car and the doors slid close. **"Welcome to the Kaiba Land Rail Car. Please state your destination."**

"Wait, this isn't driven by a driver?" Jaden asked, moving towards the very front of the car to see that there was no cut off section for there to be a driver. There was just a glass window with a bench in front of it for extra seating. Looking towards the back Jaden saw the same thing. "Is this all automated?"

"Completely," Danni responded as she sat on the back bench, lounging out and placing her hands behind her head. "You just state where you want to go and then it'll take you there. Please take us to the VIP Lounge."

**"Next stop: VIP Lounge. Approximate time of arrival: five minutes. Please take a seat and enjoy the ride." **

Everyone took a seat near the back where Danni had sat down. Once they all were sitting the car started to move, heading into dark tunnels, with the only light coming from inside of the car itself. "Kaiba sure does have a lot of cool tech," Atticus commented. "When does he have time for all of these different ideas?"

"Most of the time it's Mokuba Kaiba that oversees all of the new developments. Kaiba just comes up with the ideas and plans," Chazz explained with a shrug. "They work together. When one is too busy, the other steps in."

"So, what do you guys think about everything?" Danni asked curiously looking at the group. She gestured around her. "This whole tournament and everything that Derrick said? What do you guys think?"

"I think it's going to be awesome," Jaden exclaimed excitedly as he bounced slightly in his seat. He noticed that Alexis had scooted closer to him the slightest bit and it made him grin.

Alexis shrugged beside him as she looked towards the Princess of Games. "It's kinda of creepy how they have all of our information and our medical information. I mean, it's crazy that they know our blood type and our favorite food."

"That part is a bit unnerving," Zane agreed with the blonde. "But it's probably for our own benefit."

"I think the LOS system is pretty cool," Syrus piped up from beside his brother, looking at Danni before blushing and looking at the ground.

Aster nodded. "It's smart of them to use it for this competition. A lot of people are going to be excited to follow around their favorite duelist so to speak."

"I wanna know where it's gonna be at! I hope it's somewhere sunny!" Atticus put in.

"You just wanna surf," Alexis retorted.

Atticus grinned at his sister. "You know me so well."

The car started to slow to a stop before a noise dinged and the doors slid open. **"We have arrived at the VIP Lounge. Watch your step as you disembark and enjoy the rest of your day." **

The gang quickly exited the rail car before following Danni as they walked through another long underground hallway. The turned a few times before they found a set of stairs. They walked up the stairs before they reached a metal door. They walked through and found themselves in another large hallway, though it seemed to be much busier. All of the pro-duelists were walking into a large room full of couches, TV's, and snack tables. "Whoa, this is so cool," Jaden commented.

"You think this is cool? Wait until you see where _we_ get to wait," Danni retorted as she gestured for the others to follow her. The walked past the large room and kept walking down the hallway until they found a closed door that said 'VIP' with two guards in front of it. The two guards stepped to the side upon seeing Danni and one of them opened the door and held it open. "Thanks boys."

As soon as the group stepped in their jaws dropped. The room was huge, with three couches set up to angle around the massive flat screen TV on the wall—currently being used by Joey and Tristan to play video games—two tables full of any kind of food imaginable, music system in the corner of the room, a small bar just by the tables of food, a hallway leading down to locker rooms, a coffee machine built into a wall, and a hot tub in a corner of the room. Yugi was seated on the couch with Tea as they watched their friends play the video game, while Kaiba was seated at one of the barstools by the bar drinking a large cup of coffee and messing with something on his phone. Mai was seated on the couch closest to Joey, instigating so that the blonde would try harder to win.

"Hey, who's winning?" Danni asked as she walked into the room and glanced over at Tristan and Joey's game. She didn't seem at all aware of the shocked looks the group behind them had on their faces.

"I am!" Both Joey and Tristan said at once, causing them both to growl and punch the buttons of the remote control harder as if it would help them to win.

"I play winner!" Jesse called out as he ran into the room and plopped himself behind Joey and Tristan, easily getting over his initial shock at the opportunity to hang out with his friends that he hadn't seen in a while.

"Hey Jess!" Tristan greeted without prying his eyes off of the screen.

Tea frowned upon spotting the blunette. "Aren't you supposed to be in the states?"

Jesse turned around to look at Tea and grinned sheepishly. He could feel the glare from Danni burning into the side of his head, but decided—for his own health—to pretend he didn't notice. "I may have fudged the truth to surprise Danni."

"He lied," Aster corrected as he walked in to head over to the coffee machine with Chazz and Zane at his heels. The three wanted their daily dose of caffeine.

"I wouldn't put it so harshly…"

"I would," Danni retorted as she sat down beside Tea on the couch.

Jesse threw his arms up in the air. "Dang it girl, I just tried to surprise ya! What must I do ta get ya back in a good mood?" Jesse asked, his accent getting thicker with frustration. At the amused look on Danni's face, Jesse narrowed his eyes. "Ya aren't even mad at me are ya?"

"Nope! It's just fun to push your buttons! Plus you made me constantly text you when you didn't answer, so I needed _some _form of payback," Danni said with a mischievous grin on her face. She then shrugged. "But if you're offering, you can get me a burger tomorrow! That will make me forgive all!" Jesse rolled his eyes and couldn't help but smile, grumbling about how the brunette was going to be the death of him. She looked at the others and noticed they were still at the door and smiled. "Make yourselves at home!"

At her comment the gang all smiled and walked in. Alexis went to sit next to Danni while Jaden sat down next to Jesse behind Joey and Tristan, immediately saying he wanted to play the winner after Jesse. Syrus went to go sit by his brother at the bar—shifting uncomfortably for even _sitting_ at a bar—while Atticus sat down with Mai and helped her instigate arguments between the four boys playing video games. They continued on like that for around an hour before a knock at the door caught their attention. The door opened and in walked Derrick Lane.

"Hello there, I hope I'm not interrupting!" Derrick said with a smile as he entered, closing the door behind him. "I just came by to make sure you've got all you need for the dinner tonight."

"Oh, I was just gonna skip out on that," Danni piped up, causing her to get surprised looks from others in the room. She shrugged. "What? I'm way underdressed. I didn't know the dinner was today and I don't have anything to wear."

Derrick shook his head and sent her a blinding smile. "You needn't worry about that, Miss Muto. We've already got a dress picked out for you."

"Excuse me?"

Everyone paused what they were doing to look at Derrick in shock. Derrick grinned sheepishly. "We understood that with all of the details on the tournament being released today, and the dinner only a few hours after that, so we decided to take the liberty of getting dresses and suits picked out for all the contestants and their guests."

"How do you know they'll fit?" Alexis asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"We got your sizes."

Joey shook his head and looked back to the video game. "I'm not even gonna comment on how creepy dat is."

Derrick laughed slightly. "It is a bit unorthodox, but we've gone to a lot of trouble to get this tournament organized, so the coordination staff and the producers want everything to be perfect. Now, there are two hours before the dinner starts, and the last half hour before the dinner starts there are going to be interviews conducted. It's very important that we start preparations for the dinner now so that we can start on time. You'll have to get dressed, go through hair and make-up, and then we need to prep before interviews."

Kaiba got up and started heading towards the locker rooms. "We'll be showering and getting ready in here. Have the hair stylists and the make-up artists wait in the lounge area of the locker rooms, and have our clothes ready. Make sure none get mixed up."

"Of course, Mr. Kaiba," Derrick said with a nod.

Yugi, Aster, Zane, and Chazz immediately went to follow behind with Atticus and Syrus trailing behind. Jesse, Jaden, Joey, and Tristan complained about having to stop their game, before they got up to follow the other boys. Mai stood up with Danni, Tea, and Alexis and smiled. "Alright, let's get going. Alexis, you're going to _love_ the locker room."

* * *

"Did Kaiba put his entire fortune into this place?" Alexis asked in shock as she walked into the girls' locker room in the VIP lounge. Immediately walking into the room, Alexis spotted the lounge part of the locker room. It looked like a huge powder room—which was probably what it was meant for—and had two couches against the wall, a feather soft red carpet, a row of five vanity mirrors against one side of the wall, a touch screen on the wall to adjust the temperature, the lighting, and to play music, walls painted a beige color, and marble counters. Walking past the lounge, Alexis saw rows of shiny lockers, wooden benches in between each row of lockers and white tiled floors. She skipped past the lockers without picking a locker yet and looked out towards the actual showers. The shower stalls were separated by tiled walls and frosted glass doors to give privacy. There was a cabinet on the other side of the wall full of towels, and next to it there was a rack of soaps, scrubs, shampoos, and wash cloths.

Alexis walked back over to where the other girls were and smiled. "This place is awesome."

"Yeah, Danni and I actually had a hand in helping Kaiba design the girls locker room," Tea said with a grin on her face as she took off her red jacket and placed it in the locker she had chosen. She then looked to said girl who had just come back from putting 'I Miss Misery' on the sound system. "Danni can you get the robes and towels?"

"No problem," Danni smiled as she walked back towards the cabinet that Alexis had seen in the shower area. She came back a few minutes later with four robes and four towels, handing them out before she placed hers down to start taking off her boots.

Mai followed her lead before she looked up at Alexis and grinned. "Take your shoes off! The floors are all heated in here!"

"No way," Alexis said in disbelief as she kicked off her sneakers and pulled her socks off. She placed her foot on the floor and grinned as the floor warmed her toes. "Seto Kaiba is my new favorite person in the world."

"Really, I thought Jaden was?"

Alexis's face flared red as she went about putting her sneakers and socks in the first locker she could find. After making sure her face wasn't red anymore she turned towards the other girls and saw they were looking at her expectantly. She blushed again and shook her head. "I'm not into Jaden."

"That's not what Jesse told me," Danni said with a grin as she pulled off her halter top and threw it into her locker.

"What has he told you?"

"A lot, but mainly he says you two would make a cute couple."

Mai finished stripping down and put on her robe before nodding. "I can see it. You two would be pretty adorable together," Mai agreed as she tossed the rest of her clothes in her locker and sat down on the bench. "It's obvious he likes you too."

Alexis looked back at Mai with a quirked eyebrow and a genuinely curious look on her face. "You think he likes me?"

"Please honey, it's more obvious then Yugi liking Tea."

Tea's face exploded into a blush as she pulled her robe on and shut her locker. "I didn't think it was so obvious…"

"That's because you were so busy trying to make sure he didn't find out you liked him for you to realize he was head over heels for you," Mai retorted. Alexis and Danni finished stripping and put their own robes on. The four girls all grabbed their towels and headed into the showers. Mai looked at Danni as she went to grab a bottle of shampoo and body wash. "Come to think of it, you and Jesse would be the cutest couple."

"Wait you mean they aren't dating now?" Alexis asked in surprise. She had sincerely thought that there was something going on between the southerner and the Princess of Games. At the surprised look she was receiving from the girl, she realized that that her guess was way off.

Danni shook her head with a grin on her face. "No we're not dating, we're just best friends."

"So were Tea and Yugi," Mai pointed out as she grabbed her own soap and shampoo and walked into the first shower stall by her. Tea, hearing this discussion between Mai and Danni numerous times, decided to walk into her stall and start her shower. She already knew how it ended. Alexis decided to follow Tea's lead, figuring that this happened a lot.

"Yeah, but it _is_ possible for a girl and guy to be friends and there not be anything romantic involved," Danni pointed out as she walked into the stall next to Alexis.

"Alright if you say so, but mark my words you'll end up with Jesse."

The conversation abruptly ended as the sound of the shower drowned out any other conversation. The only sounds were that of the shower, the occasional dropping of a bottle of shampoo, and Halestorm over the speakers. The girls were still in the middle of showering when the sound of a knocking on metal caught their attention. "Hey ladies, your stylists are here!" Derrick's voice called out to them. "They'll be waiting in the lounge with your clothes and they'll help you get ready! Is there anything else you girls will need?"

"No thanks, Derrick!"

"Alright, feel free to call me if you need anything! I'll just go check on the boys!"

* * *

"I can't believe the girls are still not done," Chazz commented as he adjusted the sleeves of his grey three piece suit with a white shirt and a black tie. He was seated on the couches in the VIP lounge along with the other boys. They had finished getting changed within forty-five minutes and had been waiting for the girls to finish for nearly half an hour. "We only have fifteen minutes left before we have to start interviews."

"Chazz, Chazz, Chazz," Atticus said as he walked over in a blue suit with a ruffled violet shirt underneath his jacket. He threw his arm around Chazz's shoulder. "You must never question a woman's amount of time in getting ready for a formal event. It's the fastest way to get to an argument."

Zane nodded his agreement as he adjusted his black suit jacket. "He's right. Besides, they need to have their hair and make-up done."

"But what if we're late?" Syrus asked. He was in a suit identical to Zane's, looking around self-consciously. He wasn't used to looking so formal, and it made him self-conscious as he looked around the room.

"Who's going to tell us we're late?" Aster asked, as he adjusted his grey suit. He had ditched the jacket and just kept his vest and wore a black shirt and a gold tie instead of the standard white shirt and black tie. He grinned at Syrus. "We're the duelists, so it's no big deal if we're a few minutes late."

"The girls should be finished soon," Yugi assured as he adjusted his tie in the mirror. He was dressed in a violet suit with a grey shirt and black tie. He looked over at Kaiba who was seated on the couch in a white suit. The billionaire was looking at the TV where Derrick was talking to some of the sponsors of the tournament, not at all paying any attention to the discussion going on around him.

"I hope so!" Joey spoke up as he adjusted his red and black suit, itching at the bowtie around his neck. He was seated on the couch with Tristan who was wearing a black dress shirt, black pants, and a gold tie. He looked as uncomfortable as the blonde beside him. "I can't wait ta get out of dis monkey suit!"

Jaden and Jesse, the two who had been silent throughout the whole discussion, sat on the ground in their suits—Jaden wearing a black suit with a dark blue shirt, black tie and a black vest and Jesse wearing a black suit with a dark red shirt black tie and a black vest—playing a very intense video game, making sound effects and all. Their ties were completely askew as they focused all their attention on the game. "It's not all that bad!" Jaden piped up as he hit Jesse's video game character with his own. "Yes! Take that Jess!"

"That's cheatin'!" Jesse argued, punching on the buttons furiously. "And I actually like gettin' to dress all fancy every once in a while!"

"I don't," Tristan groaned.

The sound of footsteps coming from the girls' locker room caught the attention of most of the boys, only to see the stylists walking out. The man in the front, who was checking to make sure all of the supplies he had were still in order, looked at Yugi and Kaiba. "The ladies should be coming out now. They're getting their dresses on."

"You mean all this time they didn't even have them on?" Kaiba asked with a quirked eyebrow.

The man looked appalled. "You can't rush perfection."

With that comment the stylists all left, leaving the pro-duelists behind. "It's not that hard to walk in heels! You just need to practice!" Mai's voice cut through the silence. The sound of clicking heels filled the room as Mai walked out. "Yugi, you need to invest in some heels for your sister."

Joey, upon hearing his girlfriends' voice, turned to look at her briefly before he did a double take. Mai was wearing a short black dress that ended at mid-thigh with long flowing sleeves with the middle of the sleeve cut out. The dress clung to her curves in a flattering way and had a scoop neck design, looking very elegant and appealing. She was wearing a pair of black wedged sandals and diamond chandelier earrings. Her hair was in a French braid, with a few strands left loose on the right side of her face. Joey whistled and got up from his seat. "Nice dress," Joey complimented tossing an arm around Mai's shoulder.

"It's the woman that makes the clothes my dear," Mai smiled, before looking over at Yugi. "But seriously all kidding aside, that girl needs heels."

"Danni does have heels," Tea commented as she walked out from the locker room. She was wearing a tight knee-length violet dress with three shoulder straps on the left side of her dress, with a diamond connecting the straps to the chest part of the dress. The dress was form-fitting and was conservative in the chest area. She wore silver ballet flats, a diamond pendant, and she had her hair in a loose side bun.

"Heeled boots don't count."

Yugi looked at Tea and smiled, walking up to her and kissing her temple. "You look beautiful," he complimented, watching as her cheeks turned a pink color. He then turned to look at Mai. "Danni's a tomboy, you know that. If it's not sneakers, boots, or flip-flops, Danni's normally barefoot."

Jesse started laughing as he continued to watch the screen, starting to swat at Jaden to try and get the two-toned brunette to lose his concentration. "Don't ya remember? That's how Danni got that scar on the bottom of her foot? Girl was runnin' barefoot on the street after she ditched the heels you tried givin' her!"

"That was when she was twelve! I thought she had gotten over it!" Mai defended.

"I wear heels… just as long as they're secured to my feet and not liable to cause me to break my ankle!" Danni retorted as she walked into the room. Alexis walked in right behind her with an amused smile on her face. Both girls were walking uneasily on their heels. Danni was wearing a red dress that came down to her mid-thigh. The dress clung to her curves and had a high-low pattern at the chest, ending just in the middle of her sternum. The fabric used in the high low was ruffled and flowy with jewels bedazzled on the front, covering her chest area so the high low pattern wasn't too revealing and instead looked tasteful, and at the skirt portion there were two strings that hung down from her hips. She had black high heels that were fastened at her ankles—and they also seemed to be causing her to sway on her feet slightly. She was wearing diamond hoop earrings and she had her hair up in a neat high-ponytail. Alexis had on a royal blue dress that came down to mid-thigh with a diamond sash across her stomach in a diagonal and crossing over her chest area and onto her shoulder. She had a diamond bracelet on her wrist and she was wearing black closed-toe heels. Her hair was curled and framing her face the left side her hair pinned up slightly.

"I've got to agree with Danni. I'd rather be in sneakers," Alexis spoke up, pulling at the bottom of her dress and trying not to topple over in her heels. "These are just uncomfortable."

All of the boys—excluding Jaden and Jesse who were still engrossed by the video games—turned to look at the younger girls and smiled. "Wow, look at you two!" Atticus grinned.

"You both look great," Chazz complimented.

Jaden, hearing the compliments being dished out, looked up quickly towards the door of the locker room, and found himself unable to tear his eyes away from the beautiful blonde in front of him. Alexis looked amazing, and he had never seen her wear something like the dress she had on. He could tell that she was out of her comfort zone with the dress, but it looked like it was hand-made for her. It was perfect. _She_ was perfect.

"Yes! I win!" Jesse cheered after seeing his character win. He turned to gloat at the former Slifer beside him and saw that he was staring at something else. Jesse frowned and nudged his shoulder before following his line of sight. "Hey Jay, whatcha lookin'—" All words died in his throat as he looked up and saw Danni. She looked absolutely gorgeous. He had known Danni all his life and he had never seen her dressed up and looking so… so _stunning_. He had to blink and shake his head a few times to remember that this was _Danni_ he was thinking about. Just looking at her face he could tell she was anything but pleased, and he grinned knowing that however his best friend looked, she was still the same fiery tempered tomboy he had grown up with.

"I feel like a baby deer," Danni muttered as she tried to take a few test steps, wobbling slightly.

Kaiba snorted. "That's because you look like one."

Danni glared over at Kaiba before looking at Alexis. "You having any more luck?"

Alexis tried walking forward only to stumble and nearly fall if it weren't for Joey and Mai grabbing each of her arms. Alexis grinned sheepishly and shrugged. "No, not at all."

"Alright, quick lesson for walking in heels!" Mai announced, clapping her hands. She steadied Alexis before moving away from Joey to stand across the room.

"Oh I've gotta see this," Jesse grinned, getting up from the floor and going to sit on the couch backwards, grinning cheekily at the brunette girl glaring his way. Jaden quickly followed suit and laughed as he saw the exasperated look on Alexis' face.

"Now the trick to walking in heels is to put your weight onto your toes instead of your heels and walk that way. Keep your head back, shoulders squared and pick a spot on the wall then try not to think too much about how you look when you walk. Danni, you go first."

"Ten bucks says she falls."

"I swear to God Jesse, I will hit you."


	4. Chapter 4

Yugioh GX: The Ancient City Tournament

**"Welcome to the opening dinner of the Ancient City Tournament!"** Derrick announced with a large smile on his face. The pro-duelists were in a private room in the ballroom watching Derrick go through the first few announcements and interview some of the other duelists who had showed up earlier to get into the ballroom. He was doing his job phenomenally, helping the duelists who seemed uncomfortable with the interviews, and cutting back with those who seemed more than eager to speak with him. Yugi and the gang were told they were going to be some of the last to get their interviews done, so they were waiting until one of the attendants gave them the signal to actually walk into the ballroom. They each had their own specific times that they were to walk by the entrance to the ballroom to do a brief interview with Derrick before they walked inside. For now they were just sitting around on the couches watching the interviews in relative silence.

One of the guards walked in and nodded to the group all standing around. "Syrus and Zane, you two are up."

The siblings got up and waved to the group before walking out the door. **"And here we have Zane and Syrus Truesdale!"** Derrick announced on the TV with a large smile. **"Welcome, gentlemen! How do you feel to be a part of this tournament?"**

**"It's exciting!" **Syrus exclaimed with a large smile.

**"I'm sure that you're all eager to get started, but I must ask, Zane are you up to the challenge of this tournament? We received word from your doctors that you had been in critical condition after a dueling accident. Have you recovered?"**

**"I've been assured by my doctors that I should have no problems, and I've participated in other duels in order to test my limits. I am more than up to it."**

"Hey, who's next on the list?" Atticus questioned, looking around the room.

"I am," Aster spoke up as he stood and adjusted his suit.

Chazz nodded. "And I'm after him."

"Why do we even have to have these individual time slots? Can't we just all go in at once?" Alexis asked with a quirked eyebrow. "What's the point?"

"They want to please the fans watching by showing all the duelists, so they can choose favorites, and so they know who is actually competing," Kaiba answered easily. He crossed his arms on the couch as Aster was called out. "Thankfully, after these interviews and formalities are done, we can just get right to dueling."

The interviews went by quickly. Aster finished his—talking about how he was honored to be there and giving the camera a devilish smile—and Chazz was next, sounding as arrogant and egotistical as always, and Atticus quickly went up, portraying his surfer attitude even with the simplest of questions. Joey and Mai walked up next, answering questions about their confidence and their relationship—earning a cheeky grin from Mai and a sheepish grin from Joey. "Alexis Rhodes," the guard called out at the door. Alexis smiled and cast a look back towards Jaden before walking out.

Everyone turned to look at the TV juts as Alexis walked into frame of the camera. **"And here we have the lovely Alexis Rhodes! It's a pleasure to have you here Alexis." **

**"It's a pleasure to be here,"** Alexis replied politely with a large smile on her face.

**"Now I understand that in Duel Academy, you were known as the Queen of the Obelisks, is that right?"** Derrick asked curiously.

Alexis, suddenly aware of the camera on her, blushed slightly and grinned sheepishly, as she looked at it briefly before looking back at Derrick. **"Oh gosh, I thought I had outgrown that name. It was something the Obelisk boys liked to call me since I was the top girl in the school. Everyone just got used to calling me it so it stuck."**

**"Well, it is a fitting name! Now how do you plan to bringing prior dueling experience to this competition?"**

**"My game plan really is just to stick with what I know. I'm confident in my abilities in myself and my deck and I think that's really all I need." **

Derrick smiled and nodded. **"That's a marvelous answer! Now how do you plan to deal with your ex-boyfriend competing here?" **

Jaden suddenly sat up and stared intently at the screen. Alexis's face darkened slightly as she processed the question. **"Pardon?"**

**"Your ex-boyfriend Mark Johnson has also entered this competition! Is there any chance of a rekindled flame?"**

**"None."**

With that brief reply Alexis turned on her heel and stalked into the ballroom to meet up with the others. Jesse whistled. "Dang, Alexis didn't look too happy," Jesse commented as Derrick started speaking about something on the TV screen that no one was really paying attention to. Jaden didn't really listen to Jesse either. He was too busy wondering who Mark Johnson was and when he went out with Alexis. He vaguely remembered Derrick interviewing someone named Mark earlier, but he had been too busy talking with Alexis and Jesse to take much notice.

"The witch is here," Kaiba commented, pointing to the screen.

Everyone turned to see Frankie Johnson on the screen. She was wearing a very inappropriate black dress that ended just under her butt and had a high low design like Danni's except for the fact it went down to her belly button and showed off the black bra with gold studs on them she had underneath it. The only back part of her dress was on her skirt portion, and her hair was half up and half down. She walked up to the camera with a satisfied smirk on her face. **"Frankie, who do you believe to be your biggest competition is?"**

**"The only people I see as threats are Yugi Muto and Seto Kaiba, though I would like to issue a challenge to the petty princess of the dueling world. Daniela Muto, you think you're the best of the best. You're just a joke. The only reason you're name means anything in the dueling world is because your brother is the King of Games. You're not even in my league… as soon as this tournament starts… I'm coming for you. Then we'll see who the best is." **

**"Wow! Those are fighting words! And I'm sure we'll all love to see that duel! Enjoy the dinner!" **

"Oh I'll show her who the best is!" Danni seethed, jumping up from the couch and running—a feat that both amused and amazed everyone seeing as she still had on heels—to the door. Jesse was up and after her in a second and wrapped an arm around her waist before she got to the door. He picked her up and held her under one arm as she kicked and flailed to no avail. "Jesse, put me down!"

"No way, ya're gonna go off and start somethin' with Frankie, and she's liable to try and fight ya. And I've got a no hittin' girls policy."

"I'm not asking you to hit her!"

"Yeah, but since I've been the one, lookin' out for ya're ass since we've been kids, I know ya would turn to me for help," Jesse retorted, placing her back on the couch in between Kaiba and Yugi, knowing that neither male would let the brunette up from the couch. Danni pouted in between them. "Now, sit still, and watch the rest of the interviews until it's ya're turn."

A few more duelists went through their interview before Danni was called. She got up and walked to the door, sticking her tongue out at Jesse before she ran out the door. She appeared on the screen walking up to Derrick and smiled. **"Ah if it isn't the Princess herself, Miss Daniela Muto!" ** Derrick greeted with a genuine smile on his face. **"I'm a bit star struck being in front of such dueling royalty." **

Danni's cheeks turned pink slightly. **"Why thank you Mr. Lane, but please call me Danni." **

**"Very well Danni, how does it feel to be called out by one of the top female duelists in the world and for such harsh criticism to come your way?" **

Danni shrugged. **"I'm not all that worried or concerned with it. If Frankie wants a duel I'm more than happy to oblige her with one. As for her criticism, I don't believe someone who has lost to me on numerous occasions should say I'm a 'petty princess'. Then again, we all have our opinions, however misguided some may be." **

Yugi facepalmed. "She's getting ready to start a fight."

"Why not let her?" Jaden questioned. "She seems like she can handle herself."

"Danni hasn't ever been in a fight. She wouldn't last long against Frankie," Yugi commented with a shake of his head. "She's a black belt."

"Oh man, then why does she keep antagonizing her?"

"Because that girl is too stubborn for her own good," Jesse retorted.

**"Well, I sincerely hope you enjoy your time. And good luck in the tournament."**

**"Thank you, I appreciate it,"** Danni said before walking in.

Jaden stood up and grinned. "Alright, my turn!"

* * *

Jaden walked out towards where the camera was and got a bit overwhelmed. He could see the open double doors of the ballroom and the extravagantly decorated interior. There were hundreds off tables either off to the left or right side of the room, with the middle cleared for dancing. There was a stage at the very front which had a microphone stand and banners saying 'Ancient City Tournament!' At the very back of the room, Jaden could see a row of tables pushed together holding the LOS, Bio-Tracker, and the CSS all laid out, for after the dinner.

"Jaden Yuki!" Derrick exclaimed, getting the two-toned brunettes' attention and succeeding in getting the boy to walk over. Jaden looked at the camera in front of him and grinned sheepishly, not sure how to act in front of a camera. "Welcome Jaden, I understand that this is the first time you've been on the pro-circuit in quite some time."

Jaden nodded. "Yeah, I took a little time off to travel!"

"That's sounds lovely, where are some of the places you've travelled to?"

"Well, I just got back from Italy, but before then I was in the States and before that Spain. It's interesting experiencing different cultures," Jaden answered honestly, wondering why Derrick was asking about his travelling.

Derrick smiled. "Wow, so do you plan on using any of the things you learned from these places to help you in this tournament?"

Ah… so _that _was where he was going with his questions. Jaden grinned. "Well I always like to use new things I learn, so yeah, I'll probably throw some stuff I learn in there! I'm just super stoked for this tournament."

"And we're excited to see you compete! Good luck Jaden, and enjoy the dinner."

"Thanks," Jaden smiled before he headed into the ballroom. He immediately paused to look around the room, trying to spot the others. He couldn't see them and started to scan the area, vaguely aware of a 'Leon Moore' conducting an interview behind him. As he looked around the room a second time, something caught his eye and he searched for it. He didn't have to look long before he saw Alexis and Danni standing in front of a table waving their arms in the air, trying to get his attention. He smiled and jogged over to them. He noticed that their group had managed to take up two tables. "Thanks for flagging me down," Jaden thanked as he made it over to the tables.

"No problem," Alexis responded with a smile, gesturing to Zane and Syrus. "They started flagging us down so we just kept it going. It's been working."

Joey grinned up at Jaden from his spot in between Mai and Tristan. "How was ya interview?"

"It was good I guess. Not as exciting as others," Jaden commented, tossing a look over to Alexis. The blonde caught his look and mouthed 'later' to the two-toned brunette. He nodded slightly and then looked over to Danni, grinning as if he'd been talking about her interview being the exciting one. "Danni all but called out Frankie."

"What are you kidding?" Tristan asked in shock.

"Danni are you crazy? You know Frankie doesn't mess around," Mai reminded the girl with a serious look on her face. Mai had been in a duel with Frankie before and knew how she operated. She was also on the receiving end of a particularly nasty right hook. She knew for a fact that Frankie _wasn't_ one to be messed with.

Danni shrugged. "I never claimed sanity."

"Well that much was obvious," Aster commented, earning a glare from the brunette girl. He smiled and continued. "Anyway, let's not talk about interviews. This is one of our last days to relax before we go to the tournament."

"Aster's right! This is our time to party!" Atticus cheered.

Alexis rolled her eyes and sat down in the chair just behind her. "You know, I'm glad you're not twenty-one yet. I don't know how I'd deal with you if you ever got drunk."

"We shall find out in three months and fourteen days!"

Zane facepalmed. "I'm going to conveniently be a good three countries away on that day."

"Please take me with you," Alexis said with a grin on her face.

Atticus pouted. "Hey! At least I know my little buddy Syrus is going to be there for me, right Sy?"

Syrus looked like a deer caught in headlights. "Um…"

"Hey look, Jesse's inside," Chazz pointed out, causing everyone to forget about Atticus trying to recruit people to be his designated driver. The group all turned to the door to see Jesse looking around in confusion as to where the group was.

"Jaden, help us this time," Alexis said as she and Danni both got up and started waving their hands again. Jaden grinned and started jumping up and down waving a long with the two girls, trying to catch the attention of the blunette. Jesse looked past them at least five times before he started to walk in a different direction. "How can he not see us?" Alexis asked in sheer confusion as to how the dense blunette could miss the three of them jumping around.

"There are people on the floor dancing, so we may just blend in to him," Danni shrugged before smiling. "I got this." She cleared her throat before cupping her hands around her mouth. "Hey cowboy!" She shouted loudly, causing a lot of people to turn in their direction, including the blunette they had been trying to flag down. He looked over—saw Jaden standing on two chairs and jumping up and down—and smiled before making his way over to them.

"How long were ya'll tryin' to get my attention?" Jesse asked sheepishly as he made his way over to the group.

"A while," Jaden laughed as he and Jesse took a seat at one of the tables, Jaden sitting next to Alexis and Jesse sitting next to Danni. The two girls had already claimed the seats right next to each other and started whispering to one another about something that made them laugh. Jaden and Jesse tried eavesdropping—sending each other looks—but it had failed when Alexis spotted them and told Danni 'we'll talk later'.

"Hey rich boy!" Joey shouted suddenly catching the attention of the group. They all turned to see Kaiba walking through the door. Kaiba turned and saw Joey and rolled his eyes before he started heading their way.

"Hey I think he's finally warming up to you," Tristan laughed.

"Why do ya say dat?"

"He didn't flip you off that time."

The group all laughed as Kaiba walked over silently and took a seat in between Aster and Chazz. They talked a bit more and flagged down Yugi and Tea as they walked in. As soon as they gang was all together, they sat down and talked to one another, some of them sitting backwards in chairs so they could talk to people in other tables. This went on for around five minutes before the lights dimmed and Derrick made his way on stage. **"Welcome to the opening dinner for the Ancient City tournament! I hope you all will have a good time! You'll all notice the tables in the back of the room there are tables set up with the LOS, CSS, and Bio-Trackers. They are all labeled with your names and you may feel free to take them as you leave today. You will all begin using the LOS system for the first time tomorrow morning, and you will be notified tomorrow night so you know what to prepare for the beginning of the competition. But for now, all of you please enjoy this night! It is for all of you bravely agreeing to participate! Enjoy this night of celebration for in two days' time you shall be in the middle of one the biggest competitions of your life!"**

Almost immediately the lights darkened in the ball room as strobe lights and music started to fill the room. Immediately the waiters walked out and began serving the tables. The dinner was fantastic. They were served a salad as the first course with the main course being a meatloaf with sliced pieces of seasoned baked potato on the side. They were told that there would be at least an hour before dessert was going to be served and soon dancers started flooding the floor. Tea's eyes lit up as she looked over at Yugi. "Let's go dance!"

"Uh… what about the dessert?" Yugi commented, looking nervous. He wasn't as coordinated as his girlfriend was when it came to dancing and he didn't want to embarrass Tea. So any excuse he could to get out of it, he'd use.

"That shouldn't be served for another hour!" Tea retorted, turning to look around the table for support. She grinned spotting Mai and seeing Danni and Alexis at the next table over. "C'mon, these boys are too scared to dance, why don't us girls show them up?" Mai grinned evilly and stood up without a word, while Alexis whispered something to Danni first before the brunette smiled. The two girls stood up and walked over to the two older women. Tea grinned triumphantly. "Well you guys sit here and have a good time. Let's go girls!"

"Maybe you boys should try to work up your nerve to dance," Danni taunted as they walked away.

"Maybe you should try not to tip over in your shoes," Kaiba retorted, taking a sip of the water at the table. He earned a glare from the brunette before they disappeared into the crowd of dancing people. Once they disappeared, Atticus grinned broadly.

"I don't know about you guys, but I could go for some dancing!" Within an instant Atticus was up from his seat and heading for the dance floor.

Zane looked at the brunette and sighed shaking his head. "Someone's gotta make sure he doesn't harass someone. C'mon Sy, you're helping."

"What? Why me?"

"Cause if he does piss someone off—more than likely a girl—you're cute and innocent enough that they might forget it if you explain to them that Atticus is an idiot."

"I'll help you both out," Aster offered with a grin on his face. In all honesty, he just wanted to see the train wreck that would be Atticus flirting with other girls. The three of them all got up and walked over to the dance floor. Kaiba got up wordlessly, grabbing his cell phone and walking out of the ballroom.

"Looks like it's just us," Tristan commented, looking at Yugi, Joey, Chazz, Jesse, and Jaden. He grinned and jerked a thumb over to the dance floor. "Unless any of you boys want to go join them."

"Nope," Chazz commented, popping the 'p' and shaking his head. "I'm not one for dances."

"I can't dance," Jaden piped up.

Jesse shook his head. "I don't really like dancin' all that much."

"Too full…" Joey muttered, holding his stomach. He had eaten both his food and half of Mai's seeing as she didn't want to eat all of it. Plus he ate all the bread that had been on their table. He tried to take the ones from Jaden's table, but he had been met with a predatory glare from both Jaden and Jesse. They two boys had divided the bread amongst themselves, and saw Joey trying to reach for it as a threat to their food. And they loved their food.

"So it looks like we'll be here for a while. What would you boys like to talk about?" Yugi asked.

"Hey, I've always wanted to ask, what happened after the Battle City Tournament?" Jaden commented, looking towards Yugi and Joey in curiosity. He turned around in his chair and grinned. "I heard a bunch of stories about there being some sort of card seal and peoples souls being stolen. Is any of that true?"

Joey's eyes immediately widened in recognition. "Aw ya mean with that Dartz guy! That's when we met Jesse's cousin, Valon!"

"Wait, ya'll met Valon then?" Jesse asked in confusion, frowning. "He told me ya'll met at a tournament."

Tristan nodded. "Yeah, that's the same thing we told Danni. We didn't want to let you both know that both Valon and Yugi lost their souls."

"Whoa, wait what?" Chazz spoke up. "How did you lose your souls?"

"So the rumors were true?" Jaden asked, looking at the three adults with mild excitement.

Yugi nodded. "The rumors are all true, unfortunately. This man named Dartz and his organization had been stealing souls for years to resurrect the Leviathan. Jesse, Valon happened to be working for Dartz at that time." Yugi noticed the startled expression on Jesse's face and smiled a bit. "Don't worry; he turned over to the good side. But, before that happened, he kinda sorta got his soul stolen by the Seal of Orichalcos."

"Yeah, while he was tryin' to flirt with Mai," Joey commented with a slight glare on his face.

Jesse shook his head. "Wait a second, Valon was working for this guy, got his soul stolen _and_ he was tryin' to flirt with Mai?"

"Yeah, and then Yugi got his soul stolen too, before they defeated Dartz by using the three Dragons," Tristan finished. He grinned at the startled looks on the three faces of the younger boys and laughed. "Can you see why we switched the stories as to how Valon met us?"

"That's crazy!" Jesse exclaimed in shock.

Chazz shrugged. "Kinda reminds me of the Shadow Riders."

"The Shadow Riders?" Yugi asked in confusion.

The boys spent nearly an hour swapping stories about their adventures they've had. Jaden and Chazz talked about the Shadow Riders, the Society of Light, and the mess Viper had gotten them in while Yugi, Joey, and Tristan talked about Duelist Kingdom, the Millennium Items, Bakura and Marik, and Atem. "So, you boys have had your own fair share of adventures too huh?" Yugi grinned.

"Yeah you can sure say that," Jaden nodded before he laughed and turned to look at Jesse. "Remember when Yubel possessed you? Man, you had us all scared!" Jaden didn't seem to notice the pale expressions on Yugi and Joey's faces and Tristan's subtle 'don't continue your story' signal. So instead he continued telling the story. "So, after the whole mess with Viper, Jesse had gotten stuck in the other dimension, so then we got ready to try and get him out. When we got there, we found out that Yubel, my duel spirit, had possessed Jesse and was pretty much ruling with an iron fist! It was pretty crazy! He nearly killed Zane and he almost died himself too! We were all real—" Jaden finally noticed the 'please stop talking now' look on Yugi, Chazz, Joey and Tristan's faces. Jesse, who was seated next to Jaden, noticed it and frowned. Simultaneously the two boys turned around to see Danni standing behind them with a horrified and hurt expression on her face.

"Jaden, Alexis is looking for you," Danni said before she turned on her heel and started walking away quickly into the crowd of people.

Jesse jumped up from his seat and sighed. "Crap, I'll go deal with her."

With that he was gone. Jaden blinked before turning to look at Yugi in confusion. Yugi seemed to understand what the two-toned brunette was thinking and sighed. "Based on her reaction, I don't think Jesse told her about his near-death experience. She's probably feeling hurt that he didn't trust her enough to tell her."

Jaden winced at the fact that he had inadvertently spilled the beans and frowned before he remembered what Danni had said before she left. Alexis was looking for him. Remembering that she had promised to tell him about what happened during her interview—more specifically regarding Mark Johnson—Jaden stood up and excused himself from the table, promising he'd be back soon. He turned and headed into the mob of dancing people, hoping to find the golden eyed goddess he had known for five years.

* * *

_Shit, _was the only thought going through Jesse's mind as he weaved in and out of the crowd of dancers, trying to spot the brunette that had disappeared into the mob a few seconds ahead of him. He had originally thought that finding her would be easy because of his height advantage, but the task was proving more difficult than he had anticipated. People kept moving about, bumping into him or stepping on his foot while the lights were darker over the dance floor. As if that wasn't enough, the strobe lights that were on made it harder for him to see Danni since they would move around too fast for him to check or blind him. "Damn it girl, where are ya?" Jesse muttered as he managed to work his way out of the crowd. He spotted a flash of brown and red and started heading in that direction. Danni was walking directly in front of him, heading for the side exit by the stage. Jesse quickly ran up and grabbed Danni's shoulder, and stopped her from walking out. "Danni—"

He felt himself stumble back as Danni pushed him. But she didn't walk away from him. Instead she glared at him with obvious pain in her face. She grabbed his arm and pulled him out towards the exit, ending up in a dark deserted hallway. She closed the door behind them before she rounded on Jesse and shoved him again, this time, making sure he hit his back on the wall. She glared at him before she punched his shoulder three times and glared once again. Jesse didn't flinch back or attempt to stop her. He knew he probably deserved it. He had always told Danni everything and one of the biggest things he knew he should have told her… he purposely didn't. "Does eleven years mean _nothing_ to you?" She hissed looking at him. "I told you when I went on that trip to Egypt with Pegasus. I told you when I got trapped in that cave-in for two days. I told you when I sprained my wrist in a freak dueling accident. I told you _everything_. I've _always_ told you everything. Now, why the hell do I have to find out you almost _died_ from someone else?"

"Danni, I didn't want ya to worry so much about me. I knew if I told ya about it, ya'd go off worryin'."

"Of course I would have! I'm your best friend! It's my _job_ to worry!" Danni shouted, throwing her hands into the air. "You were trapped in a different dimension, possessed by a duel spirit, nearly killed someone, and you almost _died_! What else would you expect me to do? Jesse… why didn't you trust me?"

Jesse saw the hurt expression on her face and he saw the tears starting to well up in her eyes. Almost immediately he felt his heart jump into his throat. He moved forward and put both his hands on either side of her face, stroking her cheek with his thumb. "No, that ain't it Danni, I swear. I trust ya with my life, ya know that. I just… I didn't wanna get ya so worried. If I had told ya, ya would've started cryin' like ya're about to now. And I hate to see ya cry. I didn't tell ya cause I wanna keep seein' that smile on your face, not tears." Danni lowered her eyes slightly, to make sure that he couldn't see her crying, before she removed his hands from her face and pulled him closer, reaching up to wrap her arms around his neck. Jesse didn't hesitate to wrap his arms around her waist and hug her. He knew what he was doing when he chose not to tell her about the duel spirit possession. He remembered the one time that he had ended up in the hospital after he fell off the swings and landed wrong and blacked out. He remembered waking up and looking over to see Danni curled up in the hospital chair beside his bed. She was asleep, he could remember, and her eyes were red with tear streaks down her cheeks. There was a pile of tissues on his table and she was holding on to his jacket and Baby Rubs. He remembered how torn up she got when she thought he was injured, so to tell her he almost _died_… he couldn't do it. He couldn't just casually bring it up in a conversation and break it to her gently. He knew it would make her cry and he couldn't stand to see her cry. But as he hugged her he could feel her tears through his jacket and hugged her a bit tighter. Maybe he should've told her after all.

"Jesse… if I _ever_ find out you almost died from someone else again… I'll kill you myself."

Jesse laughed and nodded, smiling sadly as she hugged him tighter and heard a small shaky intake of breath coming from her. "Alright, ya got a deal. But Danni, c'mon stop cryin'… please? Ya're gonna ruin ya makeup."

"…it's waterproof."

The two of them laughed at that before they separated and Jesse saw the tear streaks down her face, even though all of her makeup was still intact. He wiped away the tears on her face and smiled before grabbing the sides of her face and pulling her closer so he could kiss the tip of her nose. It was something he had done to cheer her up ever since they were nine. She had been crying after she had fallen and cut her knee and he had tried everything he could think of to make her stop crying. He had remembered that his mother had always gotten him to stop crying by kissing his cheek, so he had tried to do the same. Only, instead of getting her cheek, Danni had moved her head to tell him something, and he had gotten her nose instead. That succeeded in getting Danni to laugh and forget all about her pain. So since then, whenever Danni started crying, he'd kiss her nose to make her laugh and smile. And just as it had over nine years ago, the kiss he planted on her nose made her laugh and smile. She turned on her heel, pushing him away.

"You're off the hook for now, Jess, but you now you owe me a burger _and_ a milkshake."

"Alright, as long as ya don't mind if I buy some for myself too."

* * *

Jaden had walked around the entire dance floor twice before he had found Alexis. She was off in a darker corner of the room just watching everyone else. The reason he hadn't seen her at first was because the corner had no light above it, creating the perfect hiding spot. The only reason he had managed to spot her was because of Yubel—trying to be helpful—telling him she sensed her over in the corner. The two-toned brunette walked over to the golden haired girl and smiled at her as he made his way up to her. "Hey," he commented, sticking his hands in his pockets.

Alexis smiled sheepishly at him. "Hey. I'm guessing you saw my interview."

"I did," Jaden replied, moving closer so they wouldn't have to whisper. He didn't say anything for a while and neither did she. He didn't want to pressure her into talking, so he just waited for her to be ready. He watched as she bit her lip and sucked a big breath before opening her mouth, closing it, and starting the whole cycle over again. She did that a couple times before finally she blew out the air in her mouth and started talking.

"You probably want to know about Mark."

"Only if you want to tell me."

"Okay, well… I met Mark in my Study Abroad program," Alexis started, messing with the hem of her dress nervously. "It was a few months after graduation and we were in France. He was one of the first people I met there and we got to talking. We both didn't know anyone in France so we stuck together. One thing led to another and we started dating. It lasted around three months before I broke up with him."

"Why the break-up?" Jaden asked with a quirked eyebrow. He was very interested in this guy Mark. He wanted to know everything about him so that way he could keep Alexis as far away from his as humanly possible.

Alexis sighed and shook her head. "He started to get really controlling. I couldn't talk to other boys. I couldn't have any friends that were boys. I could barely talk to my friends that were girls. It was horrible. I told him I was gonna break-up with him and he flipped out. He went crazy saying that there was no way he'd let me leave him."

Jaden's blood ran cold and he could feel his eyes change from brown to gold and blue. He quickly closed his eyes before Alexis could see it and forced it to return to normal before he opened them again. He didn't think Alexis would be too thrilled to see his multicolored eyes as he got angry or the fact that he and Yubel had fused. He'd tell her eventually, though… maybe. He looked at Alexis's face and clenched his jaw tightly. "Did he hit you?"

"No, no, of course not," Alexis assured shaking her head. "Of course, even if he did I would've knocked him on his ass, but he never went that far. I never gave him the chance. I dropped out of the Study Abroad program and used a distraction at the club Rouge to make it to the airport without him knowing. I found Atty staying with Zane and Sy in Domino so I've been crashing with them ever since."

"Is that the incident you and Danni were talking about earlier?" Jaden asked. At Alexis's nod he sighed. "Don't worry about anything, Lex; I'll make sure he doesn't get near you."

Alexis blinked in confusion before shaking her head. "No, Jaden, I wasn't asking you to—"

"I know you weren't," Jaden cut her off before smiling. "I want to help. Besides, the Queen of the Obelisks must have her knight to protect her, right?"

"Do you want to be my knight Jaden?"

Jaden's face flared red. He took a small step forward and looked down at Alexis's face, grinning. His mind wasn't functioning at all. He knew that Alexis had asked him a question and he had a response ready in his head. But at that very moment his synapses decided to misfire and throw out his totally innocent 'Sir Jaden Yuki, at your service' comment in exchange for one that he hadn't even realized was in his head. '"Only if you want me to be. Do you want me Alexis?"

It was Alexis's turn to turn red at his question. She took her own step forward and looked from Jaden's eyes to his lips. His stomach filled with butterflies at that simple shift of the eyes and he started to lean forward, watching as Alexis tilted her head up.

"There you are!"

Jaden and Alexis sprang apart, both of their faces were beet red and they were looking very guilty at Atticus, who had walked up to them with a grin on his face. Thankfully for them, either he didn't notice, or he didn't point it out if he did notice. He just smiled. "Hey there guys, we were looking all over for you! They're serving dessert! You may want to hurry; Jesse and Joey are already halfway through theirs and ready to steal whatever ones haven't been claimed. Hey, are you guys okay? Your faces are really red? Have you been dancing too much?" The Cheshire cat grin on Atticus's face as he made his comment, made it obvious. He was very much aware of what he had walked into.

And he was loving every second of it.

"I'm gonna go get that dessert!" Jaden exclaimed immediately before all but running to the table. Whether it was from embarrassment or the fact that his food was in danger, it was unclear. But that only left the two siblings standing in the corner, Atticus grinning like a kid on Christmas and Alexis wanting to melt into the floor.

"You've got a thing for—"

"Say it and I'll beat you with your duel disk."

* * *

"Nice of you two to join us!" Mai commented as soon as Jaden and Alexis made it back to the table. She had an evil little grin on her face as she winked over at Alexis, causing the blonde to blush. "Dig into the dessert it's to die for!"

"Joey if you don't get your fork off my plate I'm going to stab you," Tea threatened as she looked at the blonde boy that had dared tried to come between her and her sugary delight. Joey quickly retracted his hand and pouted, going back to eat his—and picking off of Mai's when she wasn't looking. Tea looked to the teens and grinned. "So where are you guys staying in Domino? With family or friends or at your own places?"

"We're staying with Zane and Syrus," Atticus answered.

Chazz took a sip of water and took another bite of the chocolate cake with chocolate fudge and vanilla ice cream on the side before responding. "I'm staying in my apartment."

"I got a hotel," Aster chimed in.

"I'm stayin' at Yugi's house," Jesse spoke up with a grin. Yugi rolled his eyes and laughed before nodding in the blunette's direction. Apparently this was the first Yugi was hearing of it, but he wasn't going to complain. After all, Jesse was pretty much family anyway.

Everyone looked at Jaden expectantly. He looked up from the heap of cake he had shoved into his mouth and swallowed it before grinning sheepishly. "I was just planning on sleeping in the park honestly."

"You were gonna sleep in the park?" Kaiba asked with a quirked eyebrow.

Jaden nodded as if it wasn't a big deal. "Yeah, it's just like camping. It's no big deal really; I do it all the time when I'm travelling."

"We can't let you sleep on the street!" Tea exclaimed in shock.

"I would've slept on the grass…"

Yugi smiled. "If you want you can stay with us. We have plenty of room."

Jaden blinked in shock and shook his head. "No, I couldn't impose—"

"Non-sense!" Joey grinned. "We impose all the time! Yugi's got enough room for all of us! In fact, Tristan and I are staying over at Yugi's house too before the tournament! It'll be like a big sleepover!"

"Yeah, we've got extra beds and blankets!" Tristan grinned.

Jaden thought about it for a few seconds before grinning. They were offering, and Jesse was gonna be there too. And how could he pass up the opportunity to get to know the royalty of the dueling world better? He looked over at Alexis for a second to grin before he looked back at Yugi. "Alright, if you guys are sure it's okay."

"Aw man, this is gonna be like duel academy all over again!" Jesse exclaimed excited.

Kaiba suddenly stood up and nodded to the group. "I'm going to be leaving. Mokuba needs help with a new software protocol and I've got meetings in the morning. Chazz, I suggest you get some sleep too. Just because we're prepping for this tournament doesn't mean you're getting a day off."

"Yes sir," Chazz responded immediately, getting up with Kaiba as the two started to walk away.

"Remember to grab your stuff from the back," Zane reminded them. They nodded their understanding as they walked towards the back to collect their new tech and walked out. As soon as they were gone, Zane checked his watch and sighed. "They have the right idea. It's almost twelve o'clock. We should be heading out."

"It's almost twelve?" Syrus asked in confusion.

Atticus shrugged. "Time flies, Sy."

Yugi nodded. "We should all get some sleep."

"Typical… rich boy kills the party," Joey commented with a small grin on his face as he stood up and stretched.

Tea pouted. "Aw I wanted to dance some more!"

"No, sleep sounds good! I need to get out of these shoes!" Danni complained loudly.

Yugi laughed. "Alright, let's get going then. Everyone get a good nights' sleep. We can all meet up at the Game Shop tomorrow in the afternoon if you want." Jaden grinned.

"Perfect! This is gonna be awesome!"


	5. Chapter 5

Yugioh GX: The Ancient City Tournament

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

Yugi sat up in surprise, yawning and rubbing his eyes. He reached around his bedside table and hit the snooze button before he actually bothered to look at the time on the clock. It was nearly eleven o'clock in the morning and he had said that everyone was gonna meet up at the Game Shop in the afternoon. He groaned and rolled back over in bed, wishing he didn't have to get up yet.

"What's wrong?"

Yugi turned his head to see Tea looking at him sleepily. She was rubbing her eyes with one hand and let out a small yawn as she moved over and leaned her head on his chest. Yugi smiled at her and shook his head, kissing her on the temple. "It's just time to wake up."

Tea groaned and tried to hide herself under the blankets. "Do we _have_ to get up?"

"Yes, we do," Yugi laughed as he crawled out from underneath her and headed into the bathroom. He quickly brushed his teeth before he walked back out and smiled at her. "You try and sleep for a few more minutes while I wake everyone up. What do you want for breakfast?"

"Pancakes sound good," Tea commented as she sat up and stretched her arms over her head. "But you're gonna need help. I'll start on breakfast while you wake everyone else." Yugi groaned at his job—knowing that Joey and Tristan were hard enough to wake up—before getting up from bed and heading towards the door. He was halfway there when Tea spoke up again. "Don't forget your LOS."

Yugi turned around and saw Tea standing up and holding the glasses for him. Yugi smiled and walked back over to her. He took the glasses from her hand and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips, causing her to smile. "Thanks Tea," Yugi thanked as he put the glasses on his face. He kissed Tea again, this time a bit longer, before he backed up and turned around, pressing the first button of the LOS system on, turning the recorder on. He opened the door—unsure if the system was functioning—and headed towards Danni's room down the hall. "Um… I'm not sure if this is working or not, but if it is, hey I'm Yugi Muto. It's around eleven o'clock and everyone here is still asleep. So I'm gonna start waking them up so we can get started for the day, while Tea is gonna get breakfast ready. And I really hope this is working, cause if not I'm going to feel completely ridiculous at the fact that I'm talking to myself," Yugi said quietly as he walked up to his sister's door. "This is Danni's room," he whispered as he opened the door and walked in. The room was extremely dark—courtesy of the black-out curtains Danni had gotten especially so she could sleep in or take naps in the afternoon—but Yugi could still make out the shape of his sister.

"Danni," Yugi whispered as he walked over and perched himself on the side of her bed, just by her face. She was sleeping peacefully, hugging the Ruby doll that Jesse had gotten for her for her tenth birthday. Even though she was eighteen—and supposed to be well out of the stuffed animal phase—Danni never slept without 'Baby Rubs' as she had dubbed the stuffed animal. Yugi smiled slightly and grabbed her shoulder to shake her gently. "Danni, c'mon it's time to wake up."

Danni stirred slightly and blinked, trying to clear her eyesight. She saw her brother and yawned. "What…?"

"It's time to get up. Tea's gonna make some breakfast."

Danni groaned and turned over on her side, pulling her pillow over her head to try and hide. "Give me another hour."

"In another hour, the others are probably gonna be here," Yugi pointed out. "Just get up and I'll go wake the others." Yugi waited for a response only to realize his sister had dozed off again. "Danni," he said much louder, causing her to jump up. "Get up."

"Okay, okay, jeez, I'll get up," Danni grumbled, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

Yugi smiled and kissed her forehead before he got up from her bed and headed for the door to go into the living room. There were two couches in the living room, with two cots set up in front of each. Joey and Tristan were each sprawled out on the couches—Joey with his leg hanging over the back of the couch and Tristan sleeping on his stomach—while Jaden and Jesse were sleeping on the cots. Whenever Jesse stayed over he always went for one of the cots because he was so used to it seeing as his dad was in the military, while Jaden had opted for the cot because he wasn't picky with beds. After all, he was going to sleep in the park before Yugi had offered.

Yugi walked over to the light switch and flipped it on, watching as Joey and Tristan jerked up and fell on top of Jaden and Jesse respectively while the two younger teens had shouted in surprise. "And here are the others," Yugi narrated while he tried not to laugh.

"What's da big idea, Yug?" Joey grumbled as he climbed off of Jaden and rubbed his head from where he fell on the cot.

Yugi laughed. "It's time to get up."

"Aw, can't we have more sleep?" Tristan complained.

"If you want to miss breakfast, sure," Yugi replied, instantly getting the attention of all the occupants of the room, even though they were still groggy and sleepy. "Get your LOS on and then get ready for breakfast," Yugi advised before he headed off towards the kitchen.

Jaden was the first one to grab his glasses and put them on his face, turning them on instantly. He also grabbed the Bio-Tracker and clamped it on his right wrist. "These are so cool!"

"I call dibs on the bathroom first!" Joey and Tristan shouted at once before they glared and got up and ran towards the bathroom.

"If ya wanna get into the bathroom, there's a spare bathroom in Yugi's grandpas' room," Jesse advised as he put on his Bio-Tracker slowly while yawning. He put on his LOS and turned it on before jerking his thumb in the general direction of the bathroom. "He's out on an expedition and Joey and Tristan are probably gonna forget all about it, so ya can just head there now."

"Don't you want to go first?" Jaden asked curiously as he grabbed his backpack and stood up.

Jesse shook his head and got up, heading down the hallway. "Uh-uh, I'm gonna go use the bathroom in Danni's room. Most of my stuff is in there anyway." With that Jesse continued down the hallway and walked into Danni's room, not bothering to keep the noise level down. He blinked in surprise to see the room was still dark and Danni sitting up in bed startled and rubbing her eyes with a guilty look on her face. Jesse closed the door behind him and crossed his arms over his chest shaking his head. "Didn't Yugi try gettin' ya up?"

"Don't tell him and you can hide out here and get extra sleep too."

"Deal. Scoot over and don't go hoggin' up all the blanket."

* * *

"Man this food is awesome! Thanks Tea!" Jaden thanked with an enthusiastic smile on his face as he dug into his second stack of pancakes. He, Joey, Tristan, Yugi, and Tea were all in the kitchen eating the breakfast that Tea had made. She had made stacks of pancakes, bacon, eggs, and tater tots for everyone and was happy to see that everyone liked it.

"Well I'm glad you like it!" Tea smiled broadly. She then pouted and looked at the clock. "I just wonder what's taking Danni and Jesse so long."

"Jesse said he was gonna use the bathroom in Danni's room," Jaden pointed out. Yugi facepalmed at his statement and sighed, getting up from the table. He walked over to the cabinets and grabbed two large empty pitchers before he walked over to the sink and proceeded to fill them with cold water "What?" Jaden questioned in confusion.

"Danni is probably still asleep," Tristan spoke up, grinning as he got up to grab one of the pitchers from Yugi's hand. Joey was by his side grabbing the other one with an evil grin on his face. "And if she's still asleep, that means that Jesse went back to sleep too. So, we're gonna go wake em up!"

"I want no part of this," Tea said with a grin as she continued eating her pancakes. "I remember what happened the last time you three did this. And I wasn't particularly happy that you guys ended up shattering my mirror."

"I totally wanna see this!" Jaden grinned, jumping up and following the other boys down the hall to Danni's room. Yugi motioned for them to be quiet as he opened the door slowly and quietly. They all immediately spotted Danni and Jesse, both asleep just as Tristan had guessed. The brunette was curled up in a little ball, hugging her Ruby stuffed animal while Jesse was sprawled out and snoring. The four boys immediately walked in and closed the door behind them.

"Jaden, stay by the light switch," Yugi whispered to the two-toned brunette. "When I tell you to, turn it on." Jaden nodded at his task as Yugi walked over to the window, grabbing the curtains. The King of Games looked over his shoulder and saw that Tristan and Joey were moving towards the bed, Joey on Danni's side, while Tristan was on Jesse's. The two boys quickly and cautiously stepped onto the end of the bed so they were standing above the two teens. Danni stirred slightly, turning over, while Jesse continued snoring. Now that everyone was in place, Yugi grinned. "1… 2… 3!"

Joey and Tristan poured the water on top of the two teens and began jumping up and down at the same time that Jaden flipped the light switch on and Yugi threw open the curtains. Jesse and Danni jolted up screaming. Danni was immediately alert and aware of what was happening, while Jesse blinked a few times to wake himself up. "Joey I sincerely hope you don't want kids," Danni glared.

"Uh, why?"

Danni merely answered him by jerking her leg up and kicking Joey in a place that men never want to be kicked. Joey's eyes widened as he crumpled, knocking into Tristan and both males falling off the bed and pulling Jesse down with them. Jaden immediately burst into laughter and fell onto the floor holding his sides at the scene. The brunette girl who had caused the domino effect of bodies earned a look from her brother. She merely shrugged and grinned. "What? He should know better by now."

"Get ready for breakfast."

* * *

The others showed up shortly after Danni and Jesse's wake-up call. They gathered in the living room—Joey holding an icepack on his crotch and ignoring the laughter coming from his girlfriend—and started to talk for a few moments. Jesse and Danni reappeared having changed into their clothes. Danni had a towel on top of her hair to soak up the moisture, while Jesse merely let his wet hair drip dry and hang into his eyes. The glare that Joey sent Danni made Mai burst into a new round of laughter. Once the two late teens finished their food, the group all gathered around in the living room and started talking again.

"I feel weird," Danni spoke up randomly, catching everyone's attention.

Tristan looked over and grinned. "How is this different than any other day?"

"Do you want what Joey got?"

Tristan immediately shut his mouth and averted his gaze.

"Didn't think so," Danni grinned before looking thoughtful. "But I'm not used to wearing glasses at all so this is weird. Plus, people are actually watching us right now."

Alexis nodded in agreement as she looked around the room at everyone who was wearing the LOS. "It's pretty odd. But did anyone check to see if the LOS were actually working?"

"I did earlier this morning. So far we've got some of the highest viewed videos," Kaiba commented nonchalantly as he sipped at the water bottle in his hands. "Namely Yugi, myself, Joey, and Danni."

"None for the rest of us? How rude," Aster commented sarcastically with a grin on his face.

"Actually Jesse and Jaden got more after the little wake-up call this morning," Chazz spoke up after checking his phone briefly. "Apparently according to the comments it was funny."

"Dat wasn't funny," Joey glared at Danni.

Danni shrugged. "Not my fault. You should've known better."

"Wait, so how are we going to shower and change?" Syrus asked looking around in embarrassment. Clearly he wasn't comfortable with the idea of people watching him while he thought he had privacy, and for good reason too.

"They said we can turn off the recording whenever we had to do that," Mai reminded the group.

"I just can't wait to find out where we're going!" Jaden exclaimed enthusiastically as he bounced in his seat.

Before anyone could respond to the two-toned brunettes' comment, several rings filled the area, surprising everyone. Immediately everyone went to check their phones only to see that they weren't receiving any calls. "The CSS," Kaiba spoke up, holding his CSS in his hand and showing that it was blinking as he was receiving a text message. All the duelists quickly pulled out their CSS and checked it, receiving the same text that the CEO of Kaiba Corps had received. Yugi was the one to read it out loud.

_"Good morning duelists, I'm happy to see you all have found out how to use your new tech and that you're enjoying your day of preparation. I'm going to inform you all that for the tournament the following things are recommended in order to protect yourself and your property. First off it is highly recommended that you waterproof your duel disks and decks. Secondly, you may want to pack additional warmer clothes on top of what you already planned to bring. You may bring your clothing and other items in a duffel bag, but a backpack will be provided for you on the flight to transfer your items. Third, you must find any and all medications that you are required to take and pack them with your clothes, so that we insure your safety and health. Also if you have any phobias or things you aren't able to do, please feel free to message me back in order to insure that we make sure we make necessary arrangements for you. Remember to get a goodnight sleep and prepare to travel tomorrow!" _

"I can take care of getting all of our duel disks and decks waterproofed," Kaiba spoke up after Yugi finished reciting the message. Kaiba pulled out his cell phone and started to text someone as he continued speaking. "We'll all just have to go down to Kaiba Corps for half an hour to get it all done. We should go as soon as possible so there is still time for everyone to pack their clothes."

Zane frowned. "I'll have to catch up with you guys there. I have to get a refill of my prescription that my doctor gave me."

"Are you okay?" Tea asked in worry.

"Yeah, it's just pills for me to take in case my heart starts to act up again. It's mainly precautionary, but better be safe than sorry."

Chazz hit Zane's leg to catch his attention. "Don't worry about picking it up. We can send someone to get it for you so you won't have to." At Kaiba's nod, Chazz grinned. "See? No worries."

"Thanks."

Jaden noticed Danni texting something from her CSS and frowned, trying to look over and see what she was writing. When the brunette girl looked up and saw him trying to read her message, she frowned. "Yes?"

"What are you writing?"

"Jaden!" Alexis said hitting his leg. "You don't need to ask her that!"

Jesse looked over and shook his head. "No, I agree. Whatcha writin'?"

Danni rolled her eyes and placed her CSS down. "Derrick wrote that we should message him about things we couldn't do or things we are afraid of."

A look of realization crossed Jesse's face and Yugi smiled at his sister. Joey and Tristan started laughing, earning a glare from Yugi, Jesse, Tea, Kaiba, and Mai. The rest of the gang all looked thoroughly confused as to what had just happened. Danni caught the look and shrugged. "I almost drowned as a child, so I never really learned how to swim. Joey and Tristan laugh because they pushed me into a foot of water two years ago and watched me spaz out. The others weren't too happy they did that and still aren't when they laugh."

"It wasn't dat big a deal!" Joey argued.

Tristan nodded. "Yeah, we were both there to make sure she didn't freak out too bad! And we even tossed her a floaty!"

"She came home crying," Yugi deadpanned.

"We got her ice cream after!"

Atticus grinned, cutting into the argument. "Swimming isn't all that bad!"

"That's because you grew up in the water," Alexis reminded her older brother, who merely shrugged in response.

Syrus immediately got on his CSS and started to message Derrick. "What if we have a lot of phobias?" Syrus questioned as he looked up at the group.

"I'd just stick with the important ones, Sy," Jaden laughed.

Kaiba cleared his throat to get the attention of the group as he stood up. "We should leave now so that we still have time to pack." Everyone immediately started to stand up and gather their duel disks and decks before Danni pulled the towel off her hair and smiled at Kaiba.

"Do you mind if we stop by a burger joint? Jesse owes me lunch."


	6. Chapter 6

Yugioh GX: The Ancient City Tournament

It only took half an hour—as Kaiba had promised—to get all the decks and duel disks waterproofed and another hour to send everyone back to the places they were staying in order to pack their bags. Kaiba had sent drivers to drop off and pick up everyone before the reconvened at the Game Shop. Everyone had opted for getting food at the same time that Jesse got food from him and Danni so all of the duelists were fed, packed, and ready for the next day which meant they had the rest of the time to themselves. Joey and Yugi had somehow started up a practice duel, with Tea, Mai, Syrus, Atticus, and Tristan all watching. Kaiba had started speaking to Chazz, Zane, and Aster about some possibilities of where the tournament would be held while Jesse and Danni had gotten on the computer to look up the Duelist Cams and see what some others were doing. Jaden had been outside lying out underneath a tree.

The two-toned brunette had been there for quite some time, relaxing when he heard the door to the back open. He opened his eyes and stiffened seeing the golden-eyed girl who had stolen his heart. He immediately sat up and shifted on the ground, subconsciously adjusting his clothes. "Alexis, what are you doing out here?" Jaden questioned with a smile on his face.

Alexis smiled back and walked over to him with a small shrug. "Just thought I could use some fresh air. You always seemed to find the best spots to relax."

Jaden grinned and shrugged. "It's a talent."

"So, are you excited?" Alexis asked as she sat down beside the former Slifer. She looked at him with a quirked eyebrow. "I know you must be jumping out of your skin to get to dueling."

"You've got that right," Jaden admitted, tapping his foot anxiously. "I can't wait to get started. I just wish I knew where we are going to be heading. And I wonder what's with all the secrecy."

"Beats me, I was wondering that myself. I just hope that I do well."

Jaden shook his head and laughed, leaning back on his hands to look up at the sky. "You don't have to worry about that. You're one of the best duelists I know. You'll be a shoo-in."

"But we're going up against pro-duelists, Jaden," Alexis reminded him, looking at him in worry. "It isn't gonna be us dueling other students like us. These guys have way more experience under their belts."

"Well, all it takes is just one draw," Jaden rationalized with a smile on his face as he looked back to the golden-eyed girl. "It just takes one draw to turn the tides in a duel. And as long as you believe in yourself and your deck, I know you'll do great."

Alexis's cheeks turned the slightest bit pink as she smiled at him. "Thanks Jaden, that really means a lot to me."

"Well, I can be a sentimental guy when I want to be," Jaden laughed. "Plus, I can take my knight duties very seriously."

"Oh really now?"

"Yup! I can get a sword and everything. Don't know how I'd feel about a horse though. I never figured out how to ride those things."

Alexis started laughing loudly before Jaden joined in. The two teens continued laughing as they sat underneath the large tree in the backyard and enjoyed the weather. After a few moments their laughter subsided and they sat in a comfortable silence. "You know, the more I think about this tournament… I get this awful pit in my stomach."

Jaden turned to look at Alexis in confusion. He knew that she had been anxious to get the tournament started, and she just voiced her concern about being good. Was she that concerned that she was feeling sick about it? "Why is that?"

She shook her head and looked up to the sky. "I just feel like… I don't know. I guess it's nothing. Must be my nerves getting to me."

"Aw, don't worry about a thing, Lex, we'll all be right there with you every step of the way!"

Alexis looked at him and smiled, staring deep into his eyes. Jaden noticed the attention she was giving him and blushed a bit, but didn't break eye contact. Slowly the smile fell from Alexis's lips and her eyes drifted downwards to Jaden's lips. And just like the night before he felt butterflies swarm around in his stomach. He'd be lying if he said he didn't want to kiss Alexis, and he hoped that the subtle hints Alexis kept throwing his way meant she wanted to kiss him too. And in turn that would mean that Alexis liked him, and if that were to happen, Jaden would practically burst with excitement and happiness. She was just so _perfect_. She was beautiful, smart, kind, had a great personality, and she was a kick ass duelist. If there was ever a perfect girl for Jaden it was Alexis.

* * *

"How weird is this?"

Jesse could only nod and smile as he looked at the computer screen in front of him. He and Danni had broken away from the group pretty soon after they had returned to the Game Shop, so instead of watching the practice duel going on in the living room or joining in on the conversation Kaiba and the others were having, he had walked into the kitchen with Danni who was in the middle of eating her burger and looking at something on the computer. Turns out, Danni had pulled up the Duelist Cams and was scrolling through all the different live feeds. Jesse was immediately intrigued. The two were currently looking at the live feeds of their own cameras, both highly entertained by the fact that when they stared at their own camera feed it made a continuous loop of images, much like the one made if you were in a hall of mirrors.

"Hey look at me for a second!" Jesse said suddenly, standing up straight. Danni frowned but complied, looking at her best friend while Jesse turned his head slightly to look at Danni's screen. "Huh… so that's how I look from the side."

Danni snorted and rolled her eyes before she went to take another sip from her milkshake. "You're crazy," she laughed before she looked back at the screens again. Jesse, noticing that her mind was occupied—and therefore _not_ focused on her defenseless fries within grabbing distance—slowly started to reach over to grab her fries. He made it within a couple inches before his hand was swatted away by Danni, who turned to smirk at him. "You forget I can see what you see."

Jesse groaned as he remembered the fact that they had been looking at _their_ live feed and that Danni had seen his attempt at reaching her potato-y goodness. So instead of trying to make any excuses, he moved away from the temptation of food and opted for leaning his elbow against the counter to get a closer look at the computer screen, mirroring Danni's posture. "So who are we gonna look at now?" A Cheshire cat grin found its way onto Danni's face as she typed in two names on the search bar. Jesse grinned. "Devious. That's why I love ya."

On the screen were Jaden and Alexis's camera feeds.

"I'm a genius, I know," Danni grinned as she grabbed a couple fries and handed a few to Jesse as they watched the interactions of the two teens on the screen.

_"Plus, I can take my knight duties very seriously." _

_"Oh really now?" _

_"Yup! I can get a sword and everything. Don't know how I'd feel about a horse though. I never figured out how to ride those things." _

"The hell are they talking about?" Danni asked in confusion as she took a bite of her burger and passed the rest of her fries over to Jesse who gladly took them. The two were eating but never pulled their attention away from the screen. They didn't want to miss anything juicy. Jesse merely shrugged and shushed her as they kept watching.

_"You know, the more I think about this tournament… I get this awful pit in my stomach." _

_"Why is that?" _

_"I just feel like… I don't know. I guess it's nothing. Must be my nerves getting to me." _

_"Aw, don't worry about a thing, Lex, we'll all be right there with you every step of the way!" _

"We totally have to set them up," Danni commented as she took a sip of her vanilla milkshake then offered the straw to Jesse. Jesse took a couple gulps as he nodded his agreement.

"Wait, is Jaden blushin'?" Jesse asked perplexed.

Danni grinned and leaned into the screen. "Yes, yes he is! And it looks like he might make a move!"

"Should we be watchin' this?" Jesse asked, conflicted about invading the privacy of his friend. He genuinely felt bad about watching, but he couldn't bring himself to tear his gaze away. His curiosity had been peaked.

"Probably not."

Neither of them moved to change the screen.

"C'mon, jus' do somethin' already!" Jesse hissed at the screen, as if Jaden would be able to telepathically hear his order. Jaden and Alexis had been staring at each other and saying nothing for a bit now, and Jaden still hadn't made his move. While Jesse wasn't the best when it came to relationships, even _he_ knew that the only way for there to be a more obvious sign would be for there to be a hand written invitation for the former Slifer to kiss the Queen of the Obelisks! Finally, Jaden started to lean in and Alexis looked like she was tilting her head up too. Jesse and Danni held their breath as they waited in anticipation to see what would happen. Sure it made them seem like total creeps, but they couldn't be brought to care at that point in time. Jaden was leaning in closer and closer and—

"What are you two doing?"

Danni screamed while Jesse shouted in surprise, the two teens jerking up and hitting each other with their heads. Jesse—with his hard head—regained his composure relatively quickly and had the presence of mind to slap the laptop shut before he and Danni both whirled around to see Kaiba standing behind them with a quirked eyebrow. "Nothing," both teens answered in unison, moving closer so that they were hiding the laptop with their bodies. "Just eating," Danni added on, motioning to the half-eaten burger and milkshake by her arm, fighting off the urge to rub her forehead where it had smacked into Jesse's.

"Uh-huh, well you two should probably limit your _eating_."

"What happened?" Jaden's voice boomed as he ran through the door with Alexis at his heels. They both looked worried as they searched the inside of the kitchen. "What's the matter? We heard someone scream."

Jesse and Danni facepalmed.

* * *

"Jess… Jess…"

Jesse mumbled and turned over on his cot, paying no attention to the voice calling him as he tried to get some more sleep. He and the others hadn't fallen asleep until one in the morning and he desperately needed sleep for him to be prepared for the tournament. "Jess…" The voice spoke up again, now with something poking his cheek. When he swatted the object away and grumbled again he was rewarded with silence. Smiling to himself he yanked the blanket over his shoulders and let himself start drifting off to sleep…

_"Jesse Anderson!"_ A voice right beside his ear hissed loudly.

The blunette boy shot up and looked around in confusion only to see the lights still off in the living room and Jaden, Joey, and Tristan still asleep. He blinked before he turned his head towards where the noise came from and groaned in annoyance seeing that Danni was up and kneeling beside his cot. He looked around once before he leaned down and glared at her. "What do ya want, Danni? I'm tryin' ta sleep."

"Really? I hadn't noticed," Danni deadpanned in a whisper.

"What time is it anyway?" Jesse asked as he rubbed his eyes, trying to stifle a yawn.

"Like 3:30."

Jesse immediately looked over and glared at Danni. He leaned down closer to his face to make sure no one else could hear him as he hissed at the brunette. "Ya mean ta tell me that we jus' fell asleep two and a half hours ago and ya felt the need to wake me up?"

"You catch on fast," Danni retorted with a grin. Jesse didn't look amused. She sighed and shook her head. "I can't sleep. I'm too excited."

"Ya know ya're gonna pass out on the plane ride if ya don't get some sleep," Jesse warned as he laid back down on his cot, turning himself so that he could still see the brunette. "Just try or somethin'. Listen ta music."

"Like I haven't tried _that_ already," Danni retorted, rolling her eyes. Within seconds her entire expression changed from annoyance to wickedness as she grinned at her friend. "But that's not the reason I woke you up."

"So what was?"

Danni wordlessly lifted her hands to show Jesse the can of shaving cream and the sharpie in her hands. Her eyes flickered to Joey and Tristan who were snoring loudly, and Jesse immediately caught on. "I was thinking we could give them a little wake-up call of our own." Jesse grinned.

"Devious."


	7. Chapter 7

Yugioh GX: The Ancient City Tournament

_Knock. Knock. Knock._

Jaden blinked and sat up on his cot, rubbing his eyes. He looked towards the door and frowned. He could've sworn he heard someone knocking on the door. _Knock. Knock. Knock._ Jaden, realizing he _did_ hear knocking, grabbed his LOS and started recording before he got up from his cot and padded towards the door. He pulled the door open and yawned as he looked at the man clad in black standing in front of him. He frowned and looked over his shoulder to see a large black SUV behind him. "Morning," Jaden greeted.

"Good morning. It's time for use to get moving, Mr. Yuki," he responded as he motioned for Jaden to call the others.

Jaden frowned and looked over his shoulder at the clock on the wall. It was six in the morning. Jaden immediately grinned, knowing they were going to be transported to the location of the tournament and nodded to the man at the door. "Alright, we'll just be a minute!" Jaden left the door halfway open as he ran back into the living room and flipped on the lights, watching as the three men shot up to look at him. Jaden opened his mouth to tell them that it was time to leave, but instead of words, Jaden began laughing as he took in the sight of Tristan and Joey. Tristan had a monocle and chain drawn on his face with black sharpie and a handlebar moustache with very thick and exaggerated looking eyebrows formed with what he could only guess was shaving cream making him look vaguely like Colonel Mustard. Joey had reading glasses drawn on his face with the sharpie while he had a large shaving cream beard and moustache so he looked like Santa Claus.

"What's so funny?" Tristan asked in confusion as he and Joey shared a look. Once they saw each other, however, they shouted in surprise before getting up and running towards the bathroom to use the mirror, hoping they hadn't been subjected to the same torture the other had. As soon as they were gone, Jesse let a smirk grace his features as he got up and started to pull on his jacket seeing as he—and the others—had all slept in their clothes.

Jaden caught the look on Jesse's face and grinned as he grabbed his own jacket and slipped it over his shoulders. "You did that?"

"It was Danni's idea," Jesse said, with a grin on his face as he and Jaden walked towards the bathroom in Grandpa's room so they could quickly brush their teeth before they left. "Girl's an evil genius, I swear."

"DANNI!"

Jaden and Jesse both laughed as they heard Joey and Tristan shouting the brunette's name in anger. They ignored it, and the sounds of shuffling and shouting outside the door, as they both brushed their teeth and made sure their hair wasn't too bad. When they walked back out of the bathroom, they saw that Yugi, Tea, and Danni had all gotten up and were in the living room with Joey and Tristan, who had gotten rid of all of the shaving cream and had mostly gotten rid of their sharpie drawings. The chain of Tristan's monocle was still clear as day and the bridge of the glasses on Joey's nose was only slightly smeared off. The two of them were glaring at the brunette girl who was curled up on Jaden's cot, clutching Baby Rubs to her chest as she looked up at the two men smugly. Tea was still in her pj's, seeing as she and Tristan wouldn't be going with them to the tournament, talking with Yugi about some last minute things.

"Ya're evil!" Joey accused, pointing at the girl.

Danni smiled back at them innocently. "Why do you automatically assume it was me that did this?"

"Cause you're the only one who ever does these things aside from us!" Tristan argued throwing his arms up into the air. "It's always you and—" Tristan cut himself off as a thought occurred to him and he and Joey shared a look. The two boys then whipped around to glare at Jesse who had just entered the room, before looking back at Danni who was grinning. "You both are horrible, horrible, people."

"It was her idea," Jesse said, holding his hands up in defense.

"Traitor," Danni replied with a narrowed glare in the blunette's direction.

Jaden laughed as he watched the exchange and moved near the front door so he could grab his duffel bag and sling it over his shoulder. "Is it always like this?" Jaden asked with a grin on his face. He could _so_ get used to the craziness that seemed to surround the King of Games and his friends. It was a boatload of fun, and he wanted to get in on one or two pranks of his own.

"Unfortunately, yes," Yugi answered Jaden, with a smile and tone in his voice that told the two-toned brunette that he wasn't at all displeased with the fact that his friends were crazy. He then turned to look at Tea and kissed her forehead, tossing her a soft smile. "We'll only be gone for two weeks."

"Alright, but you better promise to be safe and to look out for each other," Tea responded with a pout and crossed arms. Yugi kissed her in response and gave her his word. The pout slipped off her face and she smiled before looking around him at the others in the room. "That goes for all of you too! Don't you go and do anything stupid! Namely you, Joey."

"Why do I get called out?!"

"Don't question it. Just give me your word."

"Fine, I promise."

"Me too!" Danni piped up with a smile on her face while Jesse merely saluted.

When Tea turned her gaze onto Jaden—who hadn't thought she was referring to him with the group—he blinked in surprise before tossing her a smile and nodded. "No worries, we'll all take care of each other!" Jaden assured her.

Tea smiled and nodded. "Alright, then you guys go on and have fun! And be sure to kick some butt for us!"

"We will!"

"We really must be going," the driver at the door spoke up, looking at his watch.

The five duelists quickly made their way to the door, grabbing their duffel bags from by the couches and headed outside, giving Tea and Tristan one last goodbye. As soon as they had stepped foot outside the driver had quickly taken their duffels from their hands and walked around towards the trunks, assuring the five duelists that he had no issues with assisting them with their items. The five quickly piled into the SUV, with Yugi and Joey in the first row and Jaden, Danni, and Jesse seated in the back row. Yugi was originally going to sit in the front passenger seat, but had to change his mind when he saw that the seat was occupied by a camera man. Once the driver had gotten into the vehicle, he turned around, holding up five red bandanas.

"I must ask that you all blindfold yourselves at this point in time so that we may maintain the secrecy of our destination," the driver asked politely, starting to pass out the blindfolds.

"Uh… so how is this supposed to work?" Danni asked as Joey passed her the three blindfolds for her, Jesse, and Jaden. She raised an eyebrow in confusion as she looked at the cloth. "Do we just tie these over our LOS too or do we tie it just around our eyes underneath the glasses?"

"Underneath the glasses will do just fine. We want the viewers at home to be able to view what's happening, while you all remain in suspense."

Yugi shrugged and started pulling off his LOS in order to tie the blindfold over his eyes. Once he made sure it was secure and he couldn't see anything, he felt around on his lap in order to grab the LOS and put it back on his face. Joey quickly followed his lead, while the three younger teens in the back tried to do the same. Jaden was having difficulties trying to tie the blindfold, seeing as it was still slipping, and Danni—who had managed to put on the blindfold but dropped her LOS on the ground—was feeling around for it, trying to find the device. Jesse was the only one who was successful at the task. "Whoa! That's not ya LOS!" Jesse shouted, as his friend started feeling around well into his personal space.

Danni rolled her eyes, though the motion was lost to the others. "Calm down Jesse, it's not like I grabbing your junk or anything."

"Ya're pretty damn close!"

Jaden snickered and bent down to grab the glasses that were by Danni's foot before he placed them in her hands. "Here you go. I still haven't gotten my blindfold on," Jaden admitted as he helped the brunette girl pull on the glasses. Danni smiled.

"Thanks, Jaden. I can tie the blindfold if you want?" She offered. Jaden accepted and turned around so that his back was facing her and handed the girl the cloth. He helped guide her so that the blindfold was over his eyes before she tied it tight so that it wouldn't fall off and so he wouldn't be able to see. "That good?"

"Perfect, thanks," Jaden thanked as he grabbed the LOS from his lap and put them over his eyes.

"Is everyone ready?" The driver asked, looking back to make sure everyone had the blindfolds on. They all confirmed and he smiled, though they couldn't see it. "Alright, let's go! It'll be a twenty minute ride to the airport, so please sit tight and enjoy the ride."

The car started moving and everyone fell silent, no one knowing what to say. The camera man occasionally asked a few questions regarding everyone's opinions about the tournament, but other than that it was silent. Jaden soon became aware of the sounds of snoring just in front of him. "And we lost Joey," Yugi commented with a laugh, causing Jaden and Jesse to laugh with him.

"I don't blame him, I'm tired too," Danni said with a yawn, shifting in her seat slightly so that she was leaning against Jesse and using him as a pillow.

"I told ya that ya would be tired," Jesse retorted as he lifted his arm to put over her shoulders after feeling her shifting.

"I was too excited to sleep!" Danni argued.

Jaden nodded his agreement, though no one could see it. "I've got to agree with Danni. I barely got any sleep either."

"You seem to be holding up quite well," Yugi commented.

"Yeah, but that's for right now. As soon as the excitement and energy wears off, I'm probably gonna crash."

"I'm with you there," Danni agreed before she started to snicker.

"What's so funny?" Yugi questioned.

"Punch buggy red!" Danni exclaimed, hitting Jesse on his thigh.

"Ow! Damn it, girl, ya can't even _see_ anythin'!"

"I know that's what makes it funny."

Jaden started laughing and even Yugi had to chuckle a bit. Jesse merely grumbled and rubbed the area that Danni had managed to hit. "If ya keep hittin' me, I won't let ya use me as a pillow anymore," Jesse threatened, causing Danni to snort.

"You always let me use you as a pillow even when I bother you," Danni pointed out.

"Well I mean it this time!"

Yugi laughed out loud that time before he got his laughter under control and downgraded it to chuckles. As soon as he was able to talk he turned in the vague direction of Jesse and smiled. "Jesse, you've said this to her a total of twelve times. Why would now be the time you 'mean it'?"

"Jesse's too nice to say no," Jaden piped up, adding his two cents to the mix.

Jesse grumbled again and decided not to respond. He also didn't move from his spot as Danni's pillow, proving the others right about him not carrying through with his threat. The rest of the ride was silent and soon the car started to slow to a stop. "Alright, we're at the airport. We must keep your blindfolds on, so we will get out slowly while others unpack your bags and place them in the plane."

As soon as the driver finished speaking, the sound of the trunk opening and people buzzing around caught everyone's attention. The door next to Yugi opened and someone grabbed his hand and helped him out of the vehicle. Next Joey was helped out—after being woken up—followed by the three teens in the back of the car. "Alright, everyone place your right hand on the person in front of you so that you won't get lost or stray away." Immediately the five did as they were told. Yugi grabbing onto the driver, while Joey grabbed his arm, Jesse grabbing his shoulder and one of Baby Rub's stuffed hands while Danni grabbed the other and Jaden grabbing her hand. The group walked along with some noises of bustling and people talking in the background. They took many twists and turns before things started to get quiet and they felt themselves going up a ramp and the sound of an engine caught their attention. "We're boarding now," the driver announced, continuing to lead the group. "Alright, now you may let go of the person in front of you, seeing as you will all board one at a time. Mr. Muto, please step forward."

Yugi stepped forward slightly and immediately felt two pairs of hands on his arms, and heard the friendly voices of the flight attendants that helped him onto the plane and into his seat. They repeated the same process with Joey, Jesse, Danni, and Jaden until they were all seated in the plane. The sound of voices chattering around them excitedly alerted them to the fact that they weren't the first ones to have boarded the plane and there were others around them. They waited in silence for around ten minutes before they heard the sound of the hatch closing and the binging of the Captain coming on.

_"Good morning duelists, this is your Captain speaking. I'd like to welcome you all this morning. Normally I'd be making announcements regarding the destinations and approximate time of arrival, but these are special circumstances as you all know. So I will just tell you that the weather is looking beautiful and that there should be no delays. The windows of the plane have all been covered to insure that no one will be able to guess the secret destination and so that you all may feel free to take off your blindfolds and mingle among your fellow duelists. We will be departing shortly so please ensure that your seats are upright and you're all buckled in. Our lovely flight attendants will go through all of the procedures for the flight." _

There was a shuffle of activity as everyone started to take off their blindfolds and look around at the other groups. Jaden immediately spotted Alexis two rows behind him, seated next to Mai. He was seated with Joey on his left while in the row right in front of them was Frankie and Danni with Yugi and Jesse seated in front of them. Jaden felt decidedly awkward sitting behind the two girls, because even _he_ could feel the tension caused by the two rivals sitting within five feet of each other. Quickly averting his gaze he looked around and noticed some guy three rows behind him to his left glaring at him. He had sandy blonde hair and blue eyes and looked pretty normal except for the fact that he had decided to glare at Jaden for some unknown reason. Figuring he'd had enough of looking around—because the flight attendants were going over the whole spiel off procedures and he was totally ignoring them—he turned back around and started to actually try listening to what was being said.

It took another two minutes for the flight attendants to finish the presentation and another five of waiting before the plane started to head out to the runway. Jaden quickly fastened his seatbelt and looked over at Joey both of them wearing a huge smile on their face. It wasn't long before the plane took off, making a few turns in the air to orient itself before it was smooth sailing.

As soon as the light came on signaling that it was safe for the duelists to remove their seatbelts, everyone had gotten up and started moving about. There was a massive shift as people started to switch seats, trying to sit by people they knew. Jaden was one of the only people still sitting—waiting for the others to orient themselves before he tried to switch his seat. "Hey Joey, are you going to—" Jaden cut himself off as he turned to look at the blonde boy only to see Alexis in his spot with a large smile on her face. "You're not Joey."

"And your observational skills are as sharp as ever," Alexis retorted with a laugh. She pointed behind them, causing Jaden to turn around. The brunette saw Joey in the spot that Alexis previously had, talking with Mai. When he turned to look back at Alexis she shrugged. "Joey wanted to switch with me so he could sit by Mai, so I figured why not?"

"Well I'm glad you decided to switch," Jaden said with a smile on his face.

Alexis smiled back and looked around them. "Man, everyone shifted pretty quickly, huh?"

Jaden followed her gaze and saw that the row directly behind him was filled with Zane and Syrus, and Atticus and Aster seated in the row in front of Joey and Mai. Kaiba and Chazz were in the row right across from Danni's—which thankfully was shuffled around so that Frankie was gone and away from Danni. Instead Jesse was in Frankie's old seat with a boy with dirty blonde hair and hazel eyes seated next to the King of Games. "I guess no one was a fan of their seats," Jaden said with a shrug.

Danni, who had been in the process of doing the exact same thing Jaden had been doing, caught what he said and turned around to look at the two duelists behind her, nodding her head. "You said it. Can you believe they actually tried to sit me with Frankie?"

Alexis laughed and nodded. "Yeah I saw that! Me and Mai were wondering how long it would take before you both started a catfight on the plane."

"It wouldn't have taken long," Danni agreed with a laugh, before her gaze went from the blonde in front of her to the left of the Queen of the Obelisks. Her eyes widened the slightest bit before narrowing, catching the attention of the blonde who quickly followed her gaze. Alexis looked back at Danni, her eyes "Hey Jesse… switch with Alexis for a second."

Jesse—who had been attempting to fall asleep—looked over at Danni and raised a questioning eyebrow. Jaden too, looked at the brunette girl in confusion. "Why?" Both boys asked in unison.

"I just gotta tell her something real quick, jeez," Danni responded easily, rolling her eyes at both boys. When they both just looked at her skeptically, Danni sighed and started poking Jesse in the side, causing the blunette the spaz out.

"Hey, quit it!" Jesse complained, trying to swat at her hand. When Danni didn't stop and continued poking his side—well aware that the blunette was hopelessly ticklish—Jesse growled in frustration before he shot up from his chair and glared down at his best friend. "Ya're lucky that I don't decide ta start ticklin' ya back."

"Yeah, yeah, threatening, I get it," Danni waved him off with a smile.

Jesse rolled his eyes at her and moved out of the row so that Alexis—who had stood up soon after Jesse had jumped up from his seat—could switch with him as he maneuvered to sit in the seat Alexis was just in, sharing an exasperated look with the two-toned brunette beside him. "Why do I bother bein' friends with 'er?"

"Well she's a kick ass duelist for one," Jaden said with a shrug as he laughed at his blunette friend, trying to lighten his mood. Jesse laughed and nodded.

"That's true. She's jus' a pain in my ass sometimes. Don't know why I put up with 'er," Jesse said loud enough so that Danni could hear him. The brunette girl—who was huddled close to Alexis and whispering urgently—paused in her speaking and turned to glare at the blunette who merely grinned. She stuck out her tongue and went back to whispering with Alexis, about what the two boys didn't know. And that of course stirred the curiosity of both boys. They shared a look and nodded before they pulled out their CSS, pretending to busy themselves with something, occasionally making a comment about one of the apps that neither boy was paying attention to. Instead, they both strained their ears to hear the conversation going on in front of them.

"Are you _sure_ that he won't recognize you?" Alexis asked in concern.

"No clue, I was wearing a mask that day, but it just covered my eyes," Danni replied with a shrug.

"So it's up in the air?"

"Pretty much, I just _hope_ he doesn't recognize me. He was ready to hit me that day at Rouge after he realized what we did, so I don't know if he'll try again if he recognizes me."

Jaden and Jesse dropped their CSS in their laps simultaneously and leaned forward, not caring that they were blowing their cover. "What?" Both boys uttered in unison, surprising both girls who were shocked that 1) they were being listened too and 2) that the two boys were completely in sync.

"Huh?" Alexis asked, fawning ignorance.

"You two are talking about Mark, aren't you?" Jaden asked with a clenched jaw. Alexis looked sheepish before she nodded. "You saw him earlier?" Again she nodded. "Where?"

"Over Jesse's shoulder; he's in the row behind you and to the left," Alexis replied quietly.

Without hesitation both boys turned their head in that direction. Jaden immediately knew who Mark was, for the simple reason that he was the blonde boy who had been glaring at him earlier. At least it made sense now. The reason he'd been glaring at him was because he knew that Jaden was friends with Alexis. "I'm sorry," Jesse spoke up, gathering Jaden's attention, bringing him back to the conversation instead of glaring at Mark—who was glaring back. The blunette was zeroed in on the brunette girl and his facial expression showed that he was nothing but serious. "I'm still stuck on somethin'. Ya said he almost hit ya?"

Danni rolled her eyes and shook her head. "He didn't hit me."

"That wasn't my question."

"He didn't take a swing at me, Jess, he just _looked_ like he wanted to," Danni clarified.

Jesse didn't seem to be all that happy with her comment either way, but he shook his head. "What happened anyway?"

"Remember I told you about that night in France?"

Jesse's eyes widened and he suddenly looked back and forth between Alexis and Danni. "No way." When both girls nodded, he looked to Jaden to see if he knew. Upon seeing the look of utter confusion on Jaden's face, Jesse whipped around to look at Mark—who was still glaring at the group—and then looked back at the girls. "Ya mean _that's_ the guy that ya danced on a table for?"

"You danced on a table?" Jaden blinked in confusion.

"It's a long story," Danni and Alexis said in unison, Danni's face turning a shade of pink.

Before Jaden could remind either of the girls that it was a long flight so they could tell him the story—which seemed more and more interesting by the second—the Captain started speaking once again. _"Attention duelists, it's time for all belongings to be transferred into the bags provided for you. Flight attendants will be around to pass out the official bags and to collect your empty personal bags for storage."_

Flight attendants appeared from the front of the plane holding large military style backpacks, starting to pass out the gray bags to all the duelists. Jesse and Alexis quickly switched their spots once again just before the flight attendant got to their row. "We'll be making another round to collect your bags," the flight attendant said to the four teens as she handed them each a bag. She gave them a smile and handed them each a blank name tag attached to an elastic string and a blank sharpie. "Please remember to write your names on those tags and attach them to your personal bag so we can insure there are no issues with lost luggage. Your name is already on the tournament bags so there will be no confusion at the tournament site."

"Thank you," the four teens chorused before the flight attendant moved to the group behind them. As soon as she was gone, Jesse turned in his seat to face Jaden and Alexis while still being able to see the brunette beside him. "Hey, I think we're gonna be doin' some sorta hiking," Jesse whispered to the three.

"Really? Why do you say that?" Alexis asked as she quickly scribbled her name onto the tag and attached it to her duffel bag.

"They gave us a military bag."

Jaden laughed and nodded as he started transferring his clothes and duel disk to the new bag. "Yeah, I thought so. But maybe it's just cause it has more pockets? We might not be doing any hiking."

"No I'm positive we will," Jesse commented as he held his backpack up for the others to see. "This is a _S.T.R.I.K.E. Cyclone_ Hydration pack. Ya see this lil' tube right here that comes outta the left shoulder strap?" Jesse asked, lifting the tube that he was talking about, showing the tube that connected to the strap with a black piece at the end of it. Jaden and Alexis stared at it in confusion, while Danni looked over and smiled, recognizing it.

"Hey, Jess, these are the bags your dad has!" Danni said happily, going to examine her own bag.

Jesse nodded before turning back to Jaden and Alexis who were both still confused. "The lil' tube connects to a hundred ounce water pouch in the bag and the lil' black piece there is where ya drink the water from. Ya only really use these kinda packs when ya're gonna be outside for long periods of time and ya will need a lot of water."

"Huh, that's pretty cool," Jaden beamed, grabbing at the mouth piece and turning it over in his fingers.

"So, how does your dad have these packs anyway?" Alexis asked curiously.

Jesse grinned and shrugged. "My dad is in the Army so he's got a lot of 'em lyin' around. He used ta take me, Danni, and Valon on hikes and gave us each one."

Danni—who had been packing her bag while the other three talked—turned around and smiled broadly. "Hydration packs are totally cool and Aaron is the best!"

"Who's Aaron?" Jaden asked in confusion.

"My dad," Jesse responded as if it should've been obvious.

"You're on a first name basis with Jesse's dad?" Alexis asked with a quirked brow.

Danni nodded and shrugged. "Yeah, it takes too much time to say 'Jesse's dad' all the time, so he told me to just call him 'Aaron' after a year. He and Emma are so nice."

"Emma's my mom," Jesse clarified before either of the teens behind him could ask the question he'd knew he'd answer. Jesse grinned and shrugged. "I call Danni's grandpa 'Solly' or 'Pops'."

Jaden and Alexis shared a look before shrugging, the two going back to their task of transferring their clothes to their newer bag. All four of the duelists had very few items with them and when they finished packing their new bag, there was a lot of space left to fill up in the bag. They talked for a bit more before Danni had started to doze off. Jesse had grinned at Jaden and Alexis sheepishly before he turned himself back around so he was sitting in his seat properly. He scooted closer to the brunette girl and placed an arm around her shoulder so that she could lean against him and use him as a pillow just as she had in the car. With Baby Rubs in her hands and Jesse acting as her pillow, Danni was out in minutes, and Jesse followed suit not long after.

"They're adorable," Alexis spoke up randomly, tossing a grin towards Jaden. When the two toned brunette frowned in confusion, she gestured towards the two sleeping duelists. "Jesse and Danni are adorable. They would make a cute couple."

"Wait, they're not dating?" Jaden asked in confusion.

"That's what I said!" Alexis laughed before she shook her head. "No they're not, but Mai is convinced the two of them are going to end up together somehow."

Jaden looked in front of them at the sleeping pair and tilted his head to the side as if he were trying to come up with a solution to a complex problem. He grinned and turned back to Alexis nodding. "I can see it."

"We should set them up."

Jaden blinked and turned to look at Alexis. The blonde girl had a mischievous look on her face and her finger was tapping her chin thoughtfully. "You think we should purposely try and set them up?"

"Yeah, why not?" Alexis asked with a shrug. "You said it yourself, you can see them together."

"Hm… I guess it couldn't hurt! But first, let's try and get some sleep. I'm exhausted."

Alexis nodded her agreement. "Yeah, I'm sleepy too."

Jaden leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, trying to relax. He was slowly drifting off when he felt Alexis put her head on his shoulder and one of her arms around his. He opened up his eyes and looked down at the golden haired goddess and saw her looking up at him innocently. "You don't mind right?" Jaden breathed in a bit and couldn't help but smell the lavender shampoo that Alexis had probably used that morning. And he absolutely loved the way she felt leaning against him and holding onto his arm. So Jaden merely shook his head and closed his eyes, leaning back against the seat with a smile gracing his features.

"Not at all."


	8. Chapter 8

Yugioh GX: The Ancient City Tournament

"Hey slacker!"

Jaden shot up at the loud voice right by his ear and looked around groggily. He was immediately greeted with the sight of Alexis sitting up and rubbing her eye tiredly while looking over his shoulder. He followed her gaze and saw Chazz standing up by his chair with an annoyed expression on his face. "About time you woke up. I've been trying for the past five minutes."

"What's up, Chazz?" Jaden yawned, stretching his arms.

Chazz gestured to the rest of the plane. "We're landing soon and the Captain said for everyone to wake up, get ready. We've gotta put our blindfolds on again."

"Alright, we're gonna duel soon!" Jaden cheered, adjusting himself and looking around the plane to see that everyone was starting to put their blindfolds on. "Thanks Chazz."

"No problem. But next time try not to snore when you're sleeping. I couldn't get any shut-eye because of you and Jesse snoring away.

"I wasn' snorin'," Jesse defended himself, turning around in his seat with a yawn, and shifting Danni slightly.

"Yes you were," Yugi commented, as he looked back at the teens. "I don't know how Danni and Alexis deal with it, but you and Jaden were snoring so loudly that everyone had to put on headphones."

"I'm used to it with spending so much time with Jess," Danni commented as she stretched her arms over her head.

Alexis nodded in agreement. "I'm used to it because of Atticus."

"Hey!" Atticus complained from his spot two rows behind his sister, unable to see because of the blindfold covering his eyes.

Zane, who had been seated in front of him with his blindfold on, laughed and started to nod his head. "She's got a point Atty."

"You _do_ snore kinda loud," Syrus agreed.

Atticus crossed his arms and pouted, while the group went back to putting on their blindfolds and getting ready for landing. Everything went smoothly and soon the tires touched down onto the tarmac. As soon as the plane coasted to a stop the Captain started speaking once again. _"We have now arrived at our checkpoint. There is just one more leg of the journey to be completed which will be done in helicopters. Flight attendants will help escort you all off the plane and into a helicopter with one other duelist. Please remain seated until then."_

There was the sound of shuffling ahead of Jaden and he strained his ears to hear who it was that was being taken off the plane and who they were paired with. He had absolutely no indication of who was being paired with whom and who was already off of the plane. He'd been seated for what seemed like forever before he felt someone tap his shoulder. He was about to open his mouth to ask what was going on when someone placed a hand on his mouth lightly.

"We'll escort you off the plane now. Don't worry, we'll grab your bag," a voice whispered quietly in his ear. Jaden nodded and allowed himself to be pulled up and led off of the plane. He felt himself going off the plane and then walking a rather long distance when suddenly he stopped. "Alright we're here. Turn around and sit at the edge of the entrance," the feminine voice advised. Jaden did as he was told and turned around before leaning back until he felt the doorway and hopped in so he was seated on the floor. He was then helped up—someone placing a hand on his head to prevent him from hurting himself—before he was led to a seat where he plopped down. "You're bag is going to be placed on the floor in between your legs." Jaden nodded and moved his legs so that the bag would fit, immediately feeling the bag by his legs. "Alright, now I'm just going to strap you in and then you'll just wait here until we get the next duelist in. Please make sure you don't talk until you're up in the air. There will be some headphones on your lap so you can talk to the pilot and duelist."

Jaden nodded and waited until the flight attendant strapped him into the helicopter and placed a pair of headphones on his lap before he heard her exit, leaving him alone. He had absolutely no clue how long he sat in the helicopter—he had gone through at least twelve songs in his head after trying to remember all the lyrics to each song—but when he'd finally gotten to the point that he was ready to start busting out into an air guitar solo he heard the same flight attendant once again, going through the same procedure she had done for him. He felt someone sit down on the seat next to him and he heard the flight attendant strap whoever it was in.

"We'll be taking off in two minutes. Please do not speak until you're up in the air and the pilot has given you the okay. There will be an assistant that will come by shortly to assist you during the short flight."

And with that he heard the flight attendant leave again.

Jaden was suddenly hit with the urge to start speaking so he could find out who was next to him—because he had an innate curiosity. It took a large amount of willpower for Jaden to keep quiet. Soon the sound of the chopper blades cut through the silence. Jaden felt excitement form in the pit of his stomach. He sucked in a deep breath, trying not to get overeager when he caught a hint of lavender. He started sniffing the air and immediately he smelt lavender again. He grinned realizing who it was seated next to him.

_"It's your little girlfriend," _Jaden heard Yubel speak up in his head.

Jaden grinned and nodded. _Yeah I know. I can smell her._

_"Totally not creepy at all."_

_Hush it._

"Sorry I'm late! I was getting my chopper assignment," a male voice spoke up as someone else entered the chopper and grabbed a seat across from them. "Put on your headphones so that you two can hear me!" He shouted loud enough for Jaden to hear over the blades. He quickly put on the headphones and adjusted the mouth piece so it was over his lips. "Can you two hear me? If you can just raise your right hand."

Jaden raised his hand.

"Good, now my name is Henry, and I'll be the one helping you get out of the helicopter. This flight should only be around half an hour, so then you'll be able to start the tournament."

Jaden nodded his head and soon he felt the chopper lift up from the ground and start flying. He figured they were up in the air for around two to three minutes before he heard the pilot. "They can start talking now."

"Hey Alexis!" Jaden spoke up as soon as they had gotten the okay.

"Jaden?" Jaden heard Alexis's voice through the headphones. "How'd you know it was me?"

"I'm Batman."

* * *

"Well this is just about as fun as pulling out teeth," Frankie growled.

Mai rolled her eyes and wished that it was visible to the girl seated next to her. Ever since Mai and Frankie had found out they were the ones paired together, the unnatural blonde had been complaining non-stop, making it completely tense and uncomfortable for everyone. "You're not my first pick either, believe it or not, hon," Mai retorted in a condescending tone.

"I hope they don't expect us to stick together once we get there," Frankie added on.

"I sincerely agree."

* * *

Chazz didn't think there had been anything worse than Jaden. But then he had gotten paired with Joey. Jaden was known for being energetic and oblivious, but Joey was like a bunny hopped up on sugar. He just kept talking and talking and talking. And he wasn't nearly as oblivious as Jaden, which meant that if Chazz used sarcasm it wouldn't be lost on the Brooklyn native. And as much as he hated to admit it, he was intimidated by Joey. He knew that while Joey was pretty cool, he was very loose with his fists and Chazz had no doubt in his mind that Joey wouldn't hesitate to punch him if he had made one too many snide comments. So instead of making any smart remark, he merely remained silent as Joey talked about something he hadn't even been paying attention to.

He could understand how Kaiba got annoyed by him.

* * *

"Looks like we're going to have an adventure of our own, huh Jesse?" Yugi commented. As soon as the King of Games had figured out that it was Jesse that he had been paired with he'd been excited. He had been with Jesse at tournaments many times before so he knew that Jesse was good. And after eleven years spent with the boy, he came to enjoy his company and watching him duel. Over all, he was quite happy with who he had gotten.

Jesse smiled and nodded his head. "Totally! This is gonna be awesome!"

"I just wonder who the others have gotten."

* * *

It was utterly silent on the helicopter. It wasn't because Kaiba and Zane didn't want to talk to each other; it was simply because they were both people of few words. They didn't need to constantly have a conversation like some of their extrovert friends—namely Jaden, Jesse, and Joey. They were perfectly content with the comfortable silence that had settled between them. They would occasionally exchange a few words regarding strategies and people they were interested in dueling, but other than that they simply enjoyed the silence, mentally preparing themselves for the challenge ahead of them.

* * *

"Do you think there is going to be a lot of physically activity? I hope not! I don't do well with physically activity. Or stress. Aw man I'm already stressing out!"

Aster laughed at Syrus's slight mental breakdown and shook his head. "Don't worry, Sy, I'll be there to help you out if you need it. I'm Mr. Physical Activity."

Syrus sighed in relief. "Good, that makes me feel a bit better."

"Just try and relax Sy! We're going to have fun, so don't worry about it. Just live it up. This is your first big pro-tournament right?"

"Yeah, it's kinda nerve-wracking."

Aster waved a hand. "Don't think too much on it and enjoy the experience. Trust me, after your first tournament you get more and more comfortable."

"Thanks Aster, I'm glad I got paired with you!"

"No problem, Sy."

* * *

Nick couldn't have been happier with his chopper assignment. When they had told him he'd be on helicopter six with Atticus Rhodes and Daniela Muto, he had already been thrilled with being able to meet the Princess of Games. But now that he sat across from the two duelists he was even more excited with his choice.

After Atticus and Danni had spoken up, the two had immediately started chattering excitedly before somehow—Nick still had no idea how—Atticus had decided they were going to start a sing along. And that was how Danni and Atticus started singing _Hello_ by _Karmin. _And while the two were over exaggerating each movement—pretending to hold air microphones—he had to admit that they actually sounded really good. And he was surprised that Danni actually could rap pretty well.

Atticus suddenly started laughing. "Nice pipes there, Danni!"

"Thanks!"

"Have you ever considered joining a band? I happen to have one!"

Danni's cheeks turned pink. "I don't usually sing in public."

Atticus grinned. "Trust me I'll help you change that."

Nick tried to keep his chuckles under wraps. He was soon pulled from his amusement when he looked out the open helicopter door and saw that the island was in sight. They were hovering above the water just fifty yards away from the shore. It was time for him to start prepping the duelists. He unfastened himself and went over towards Atticus. "Hey I'm going to get you two ready for getting out. Just try not to move around much." The two nodded and Nick unfastened Atticus's belt and helped him to stand up so that Nick could place his bag onto his back and fasten the chest and waist straps that came with the backpack. He then maneuvered the brunette boy so he was closer to the door and holding onto a bar on the top of the copter. He then did the same thing for Danni—careful with his hand positions for the chest straps—and then placed her just next to Atticus.

Nick then looked towards his watch, waiting for the clock to finally hit twelve o'clock. He still had thirty seconds, which meant that it was time to take off the blindfolds. He felt bad for what he was about to do, but he couldn't help it. So instead of worrying too much about it, he reached forward and pulled the blindfolds off of both duelists.

As soon as Danni and Atticus could see, they looked at one another and grinned before they peered out the door they were right in front of. Danni immediately flinched when she saw they were hovering around twenty feet above the ocean, fifty yards away from a beautiful and large island. Atticus, however, looked excited. "Yes! We're by the water!" Atticus cheered.

Danni turned to look back at Nick with a raised eyebrow. "How much longer until we get to the beach?"

Nick looked down at his watch and saw that it had just hit twelve. He looked up apologetically and shrugged. "How fast can you swim?"

Atticus and Danni both shared a confused look before Nick reached out and shoved the two duelists, pushing them out of the helicopter and sending them plummeting into the water below. He heard Atticus's surprised shout and Danni's terrified scream mix with the screams from all of the duelists from other copters spread out around the island. Nick sat back in his seat and motioned for the pilot to fly off. "Well, looks like the fun's just beginning."


	9. Chapter 9

Yugioh GX: The Ancient City Tournament

**"Welcome to the beginning of the Ancient City Tournament! You all may be thinking that we are a bit harsh to push our competitors out of the helicopters, but I can assure you that we know what we're doing! Our thirty-two duelists have been split into sixteen pairs, each pairing specifically picked to balance the individual strengths and weaknesses of each duelist! Now these duelists have got to work together in order to survive the treacherous island, to pass the mental and physical challenges in order to get Glyph Capsules and duel one another to gather ten of the capsules and advance onto the next round of competition! And the first challenge they have to face is a fifty yard swim to the shore! Let's see how this will end, shall we?"**

* * *

Jaden crashed into the water below with a large splash and he was vaguely aware of another splash right near him. He focused on kicking and moving his arms to swim back to the surface of the water, sucking in a breath of air. As soon as his breathing was back under control, he looked around trying to spot the blonde he knew had been pushed in just after him. Just as he was about to dive into the water to search, Alexis surfaced a few feet away from him, spitting out water and sucking in air. "Alexis, you okay?" Jaden called out, swimming over to her.

Alexis pushed her hair out of her face and tried to stay afloat. "I'm okay! But what's going on?"

"I guess this is what they meant by 'physical challenge'," Jaden mused before he motioned for Alexis to follow him as he started to swim towards the shore. He saw Alexis swimming just a bit behind him and frowned. "I just hope the others are okay."

* * *

Jesse's heart was racing as he looked around in the water. He spotted Yugi quickly surfacing beside him, but it hadn't been the King of Games that had gotten the blunette to panic. It wasn't even the fact that they had just been pushed out of a helicopter and fell twenty feet to the water below them. It was the realization that every one of the competitors had more than likely been subjected to the same treatment. And his mind had automatically gone to his best friend who couldn't swim and was positively terrified of the water.

"Yugi, we gotta find Danni!" Jesse shouted towards the man beside him who was treading water just as he was.

Yugi nodded his head in agreement, looking around at the water closest to them. When he couldn't see anything or anyone—and when he could feel his legs tiring—he looked to Jesse. "We have to get to the shore."

Jesse looked alarmed. "What? We gotta get ta Danni! She can't swim and ya know she hates the water! We gotta get ta 'er!"

"I know, I'm just as concerned as you are, but we can't do anything about it right now. We have to get to shore and pray that whoever she's with can take care of her."

Jesse didn't look at all happy with that situation but nodded reluctantly as he started swimming towards shore with Yugi. "Danni… ya better be alright."

* * *

"Ahh! Help!"

Atticus surfaced from the water quickly and shook his head, looking around to the sound of the screaming. He immediately saw Danni just behind him, splashing and freaking out as she kept disappearing underneath the surface of the water. Her arms were flailing around wildly and he could hear her coughing and sputtering. Atticus immediately started to swim over to her. "Danni, calm down, I'm right here!" Atticus assured as he got closer. Before he could reach her, she completely disappeared underneath the surface of the water. "Damn it!" Atticus cursed before he dove under the water, quickly swimming up behind Danni and wrapping an arm around her waist. He swam up to the surface with a practiced ease and the two resurfaced, Danni immediately starting to cough up the water that had filled her mouth. "I've got you, don't worry and don't start freaking out on me, okay?" Atticus advised.

Danni immediately stopped squirming and nodded, continuing to cough. "T-They pushed us out of a h-h-helicopter!" Danni said hysterically as Atticus started the swim towards the shore, with Danni firmly in his grasp.

"I know… what the hell, right?" Atticus commented, listening to Danni's hysterical breathing. "Try not to hyperventilate on me, Danni."

Again Danni took his advice and tried to slow her breathing as Atticus continued to power through the act of swimming the fifty yards to the shore. He swam for around five minutes before he felt sand under his feet. Immediately he stood up and started walking up towards the beach, lifting Danni so she was mainly out of the water. Once they were completely out of the water, Atticus dropped to the sand, letting go of Danni before lying on his back, breathing deeply. Danni fell onto the sand beside him, a relieved expression gracing her face.

"You okay?" Atticus asked in between deep breaths.

Danni nodded enthusiastically before rolling over and pressing three kisses to Atticus's cheek. "Yes, thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Atticus turned his head and gave the girl a wide smile. "Well if that's my reward, I'll save you from drowning more often."

Danni smiled back at him before rolling so she was lying on her back, looking up at the sky and catching her breath. "Where are we?"

A ringing noise caught their attention. Immediately they scrambled up, Atticus opening up one of the pockets of Danni's bag to pull out her CSS before he reached around so they could both see the device blinking with a new message notification. Danni tapped the screen and immediately the new message appeared. **"Attention duelists, as you are all aware, this competition is very different than normal tournaments. You will be pushed into severe physical and mental trials. You have the option of leaving your partner or staying with them. You will all need to collect ten Glyph Capsules before you can head to the next phase of the competition. Only the first sixteen duelists who collect ten Glyph Capsules and make their way to the next area before the end of this week will be able to compete. Good luck."**

"You have got to be kidding me," Danni muttered, looking to Atticus as if he would tell her this was all a sick joke. But unfortunately he looked just as shocked and confused as Danni did. "What physical and mental trials are they even talking about?"

The CSS beeped again and Atticus took the device from her hands. He tapped a few things and swiped something before a map appeared on the screen with the layout of the island and dozens of red and blue flags scattered across. Atticus pointed to the key at the bottom of the map. "Look, the red flags are physical challenges and the blue ones are mental."

"So we have to start collecting Glyph Capsules by completing one of these challenges so that we can wager them in duels?" Danni guessed. At Atticus's shrug, she sighed and shook her head. "Alright, which is the closest flag?"

"Um…" Atticus muttered as he scrunched his face up, trying to figure out which flag was closest to the black blip that showed where they were. "I think the closest one is a mental challenge. It _looks_ like it should just be a few miles through the forest."

Danni peered over his shoulder and shrugged. "Well that's the best plan we have so far. Let's get going!"

* * *

"Well, they can definitely say this tournament is unique," Jaden commented as he pushed leaves and branches out of his face. Not long after he and Alexis had reached the shore, they had received the mass message on their CSS. And the two had quickly taken off heading for the first red flag a mile and a half North of where they were.

Alexis nodded her head. "You can say that again. I think getting pushed out of a helicopter makes this one of the craziest tournaments I've ever competed in."

Jaden laughed and held back a branch so Alexis could pass by easier. "I don't know, we've had some pretty crazy tournaments back at Duel Academy."

"Yeah, but that was dueling for the fate of the world. This one's just for fun," Alexis pointed out as Jaden fell into step beside her again.

"Touché," Jaden laughed. "So what do you think this physical challenge is going to be?"

Alexis shrugged her shoulders and looked down at the CSS to make sure they were still going in the right way. Then she looked back to Jaden and saw that he had been looking to her for her answer. "Maybe it's something that has to do with swimming again? We're on an island after all."

"Hm… maybe!" Jaden grinned excitedly. "I'm gonna be honest, this tournament seems pretty crazy but I like it!"

Alexis laughed and the two continued to talk quietly amongst themselves before they emerged from the row of trees and spotted a red flag mounted on a wooden stake with a sign right underneath it. Alexis crouched down to read it. "Jaden, look at this. 'Buried Treasure: Before you is a twelve by twelve foot dirt pit. Inside of the pit are sixteen Glyph Capsules. You must dig so that you and your partner each get one Glyph Capsule. Only one Capsule is allowed per duelist.' Huh, it doesn't seem hard."

"Yeah, I kind of expected something more for a physical challenge," Jaden agreed before shrugging. He offered a hand to help Alexis up before the two walked a few feet to the large roped up section of dirt in a small clearing of trees. "This shouldn't be too bad," Jaden commented as he removed his backpack and immediately hopped into the pile of dirt. Alexis followed his lead—much less enthusiastically—and the two began to reach into the dirt, moving sections away in order to look for the tiny Glyph Capsules. They had been searching for around a minute before Alexis grinned triumphantly and stood upright, pulling out a tiny capsule, cleaning the dirt off the see the golden markings.

"Jaden, I found one!"

"Already? I haven't even felt anything!" Jaden complained as he continued shifting through the soil. "This isn't what I thought it would be like when they said 'physical challenge'."

* * *

"How in the hell is this a mental challenge?!"

Danni rolled her eyes and instead focused on the task at hand. They had been working on the mental challenge that they had decided to go to first and were finding it increasingly difficult. Their task was to figure out a way to unweave a large piece of string from two poles, one resting against the ground and one above it in the air resting in between two pieces of wood on each side. They had to unravel the string—without breaking it—anyway they could in order to stretch the string out and get a key that was in the center. The key would then unlock a box that held two Glyph Capsules, one for each of them. And after Atticus had managed to hit himself seven times when he ducked and climbed over the metal pole, he had started to get frustrated.

"There's got to be an easier way to do this," Atticus said shaking his head as he climbed over the pole for what appeared to be the tenth time without getting any closer to solving the key to the mystery before him.

Danni shook her head and sat down at the ground, examining the maze of white string woven between the two poles. "We can't cut it," she spoke aloud, trying to come up with a solution. She stared at it for a few more minutes—with Atticus just staring at her, hoping she'd come up with something—before she looked surprised. "Atticus, hold that string," Danni ordered before she hopped to her feet. Atticus frowned and held the end of the string that he had been trying to unravel for over twenty minutes and nodded. Danni walked over towards one end of the pole resting between the two pieces of wood and lifted it slightly, feeling it move easily. She grinned and started to slide the pole out from in between the wood, watching as the string started to come undone as the thing holding it was taken away.

"You are a genius," Atticus grinned.

Danni smiled back. "Thanks, now let's get those capsules!"

* * *

Jesse was pretty proud of the progress he and Yugi made so far. Since they had gotten to the beach they had gone full-steam ahead. They had gone through two flags already—both of them physical challenges in which strength had been called into play—and they each had two Glyph Capsules already. They had stopped after their second challenge once they saw the sun was starting to set and had decided to set up a camp. They had gathered firewood, set out their backpacks to use as pillows and pulled out their jackets so they wouldn't have to worry about keeping warm at night. The two were sitting around the campfire they'd made in silence, each wrapped up in their own thoughts.

"She'll be alright."

Jesse snapped his head up to look at Yugi to see him looking at him with a small smile on his face. Yugi caught the surprised look on Jesse's face and smiled a bit wider. "Danni… she'll be alright. There's no way that the producers would let anything happen to her, and she's smart. She can handle herself out here."

"I know," Jesse responded, with a nod. "I know she can it's jus'… we've been watchin' out for 'er for so long. And now—"

"And now she'll prove to us that she can watch out for herself."

* * *

"Atticus, how in the world did you set yourself on fire?!"

"JUST PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!"

"STOP RUNNING!"

_Splash!_

Danni waved the smoke away from her face and sighed in relief when she saw that Atticus was no longer on fire. She dropped the empty bucket that they had found earlier on in the day and sat down by her bag, looking at the brunette boy in front of her. Atticus had plopped down soon after his pant leg stopped burning, sprawled out on the ground dramatically. "Seriously, how in the hell did you set yourself on fire?"

"The mysteries of life."

"I'm not going to survive this week am I?"

"Nope! But hey, we can both enjoy the afterlife together."

"Well there's always a silver lining."

* * *

"Well this has been one crazy day," Jaden commented as he sat down beside Alexis in front of their campfire. After spending nearly half an hour digging in the dirt pit, Jaden had finally found a Glyph Capsule and they had decided to start travelling towards the next physical challenge. They had gotten around halfway there before they decided to set up camp. "Hey I wonder if we can find someone to duel tomorrow."

"I would be okay with just finding someone," Alexis added on, hugging her knees to her chest as she looked over at the two-toned brunette who was sprawled out on the ground in front of the fire, just watching it. "This island is so big, I hope we can find anyone."

"I'm sure we will!" Jaden grinned, rolling over slightly so he was looking at her. He frowned suddenly, catching Alexis off-guard.

"What's wrong?"

"Are you cold?" Jaden asked with a frown still on his face.

Alexis blinked at first before her mind registered the question. In truth she truly was cold. She'd forgotten to pack her jacket—thanks to Atticus singing at her, Zane, and Syrus right as they were packing their bags—and she could feel the island start to get colder and colder. She grinned sheepishly at Jaden and shrugged. "Yeah, but it's no big deal."

Jaden nodded wordlessly and pushed himself to his feet, grabbing his backpack and moving to walk over towards where Alexis was seated. She looked at him curiously and watched as he dumped his bag by hers and plopped down onto the ground beside her. He immediately started to pull off the red leather jacket he had on and handed it towards the blonde with a smile on his face. "Here, you can put this on. It doesn't look too thick, but it's surprisingly warm on the inside."

"Jaden, no," Alexis immediately declined, shaking her head vehemently. "You need that so you don't get cold."

"I'm used to the cold. Trust me Alexis, I'll be fine. You take it."

Alexis pouted for a second before sighing. "Are you sure Jaden?"

"Alexis, take the jacket."

Alexis smiled a bit and rolled her eyes before reaching out to take the jacket from the former Slifer. She slipped it onto her arms and smiled at the fact that it was indeed warm. There was also the little fact that it happened to smell like the boy next to her, which made her appreciate the jacket more. "Thanks Jaden."

Jaden gave her a smile and shrugged. "No problem. Do you think we should get some sleep soon?"

"Yeah probably," Alexis agreed with a nod, looking at the CSS in her lap to see that it was around seven o'clock. "We should get an early start tomorrow so we can get to as many challenges in as possible to get more Glyph Capsules. We just need to get ten before we get to the next round and we only have six more days."

Jaden bowed his head slightly with a grin on his face. "As you wish your highness."

Alexis laughed and shoved Jaden away slightly, causing the boy to laugh as well. "Alright Sir Jaden Yuki, let's get some rest. I'm sure we'll need it."


	10. Chapter 10

Yugioh GX: The Ancient City Tournament

Jaden really wasn't sure how long he'd been asleep for. With the grogginess he was feeling, he knew it was probably a few hours at the minimum. All he knew was one minute he was asleep and the next he could feel Yubel screaming in his head to wake up. So after he realized he couldn't ignore her, Jaden heeded his duel spirits' advice and woke up. Though the campfire had been put out, he had no problem seeing Yubel in the dark. She had materialized just in front of him, crouching on the ground and looking at him in annoyance.

_"Finally," _Yubel said with a snort.

_What do you want Yubel?_

_"Maybe if you quit cuddling with your little girlfriend you'd realize there's someone watching you."_

Jaden was going to ask her what she meant but it soon became apparent what Yubel meant. He had forgotten to tell Alexis that he tended to move around in his sleep a lot. At some point while he was sleeping he must've rolled over and felt Alexis, because she was currently wrapped up in his arms with her back pressed against his chest, using their bags as pillows. He looked down at the Queen of the Obelisks and saw her peacefully sleeping, breathing quietly in and out. He couldn't help but notice how the moonlight illuminated her face and made her hair glow golden like a halo. She was beautiful.

_"Jaden stop being a creep."_

Jaden—being snapped out of his stupor—looked up to glare at Yubel before he remembered the second part of what Yubel had said. _Who's watching us?_

_"Hell if I know. I don't know them. Not one of your friends, that's all I can tell ya. Whoever it is, they're hiding behind those trees over there."_

_Thanks Yubel, I'll check it out._

_"I'll be here if you need me."_

With that Yubel quickly disappeared from view as Jaden shifted himself as little as possible as to not wake the sleeping blonde in his arms. His efforts, however, proved futile seeing as Alexis stirred as soon as she felt him starting to move away. She looked at him groggily and stifled a yawn. "What's the matter?"

"Shh… keep quiet," Jaden whispered gently, scanning the trees around them, taking particular interest in the ones that Yubel had pointed out to him just to the right of where they were sleeping. "There's someone watching us." Alexis looked visibly alarmed but Jaden pushed a strand of hair out of her face and gave her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry; I'll take care of this. Just make sure you're ready to run if something goes bad, okay?"

Alexis nodded once and gave a small smile.

With her assurance Jaden let go of her before tensing slightly. All at once he shot up and sprinted towards the trees that Yubel had pointed out to him. He heard a rustle of leaves and sprinted faster, getting behind the trees just in time to see two figures decked in black trying to run away. Jaden ran faster and quickly caught up to them, grabbing them by the back of their clothes, hearing them yelp in surprise. "Why were you watching us?"

"Doesn't matter," the male commented, shaking Jaden off and removing the scarf he'd been using to hide his face, revealing tanned skin and brown eyes. He pulled out a duel disk from behind his back and activated it. "Right now we challenge you and your partner to a duel!" The female beside him pulled out of his grip and pulled out her own duel disk, pulling down her scarf to show a face strikingly similar to the male.

Jaden grinned. "Alright, you wanna duel, let's do this!"

"Hey Jaden!"

Jaden turned and saw that his duel disk was being tossed his way. He reacted quickly and caught it with one hand before he looked down and saw that Alexis was walking towards him with her duel disk already on and activated and his deck in her hands. She was smiling. "I figured that there would be only one way you'd settle any dispute. You ready to duel?" She asked, handing him his deck.

Jaden smiled wider and placed his deck in the slot, activating his duel disk and stepping back so he was in line with Alexis. "Always!"

"We each wager a Glyph Capsule," the boy announced.

"One a piece is fine with us," Alexis responded.

The girl laughed. "This will be so easy."

"All we have to do is just beat these two and we'll be on our way to getting into the next round," the boy agreed.

Jaden frowned. "So do you guys have names? I don't wanna have to keep calling you guys miscellaneous black clad figure number one and two."

"When did you start calling us that?" The female challenged.

"Well, I _thought_ it."

"We're Michael and Michelle Daniels," Michael responded quickly.

Alexis nodded and whistled appreciatively. "Michael and Michelle Daniels, also known as 'the Domination Twins'. One of the top ten tag duelists on the pro-circuit, and they've been able to hold their own with the dueling mercenaries, the Paradox Brothers. You guys are pretty good."

"So you've heard of us, huh?" Michelle commented with a grin. "Good to know our record precedes us."

Jaden immediately grinned. "Awesome, we're dueling top duelists right off the bat!"

"Jaden, _all_ the duelists here are top duelists," Alexis reminded with a grin.

"And that's why I _love_ this tournament!"

Michael rolled his eyes at the exchange. "Enough talk, let's get this over with."

"DUEL!"

Jaden and Alexis: 8000 LP

Michael and Michelle: 8000 LP

"We'll go first!" Michael announced, drawing his cards and looking at his hands. He smirked and placed a card down. "I summon my Gladiator Beast Andal in attack mode!" A large one eyed black bear wearing armor stood up on the field, roaring loudly.

Gladiator Beast Andal: 1900 ATK/1500 DEF

"And I'll turn it over to you two."

Jaden smiled. "Cool monster! But now it's my move! I summon Elemental Hero Sparkman in attack mode!" The familiar electrical hero appeared on the field in a crackle of electricity. "And I'll throw down a face down."

Elemental Hero Sparkman: 1600 ATK/1400 DEF

Michelle gave a grin. "So you're an Elemental Hero duelist, huh? This should be interesting. I summon my Amazoness Chain Master in attack mode and I'll place one card facedown." A large muscled woman with blue tiger-print clothes and a chain wrapped around her forearm appeared. "Your move."

Amazoness Chain Master: 1500 ATK/1300 DEF

"I summon Blade Skater in attack mode!" Alexis announced as the blue monster skated onto the field and skidded to a stop beside Elemental Hero Sparkman. "I'll place two cards facedown and end my turn."

Michael smirked at them before he drew his care. "Alright I'll attack your Blade Skater with my Gladiator Beast Andal!"

Jaden smirked as the bear started to rush towards Alexis' monster. "Not so fast there! You activated my trap, Hero Barrier! As long as we have a face up Elemental Hero on our side of the field I can negate your attack!" A barrier appeared in front of Blade Skater and bounced the monster back to his side of the field, keeping the female monster from being destroyed.

Alexis tossed a smile Jaden's way. "Thanks Jay, I owe you one!"

"Sir Jaden Yuki, at your service!"

"Just get on with it!" Michelle called out, rolling her eyes. "Quit your talking and take your turn."

Jaden pouted and drew his card. "Jeez… you're no fun. I guess I'll just have to lighten the mood a bit then! Alright, Elemental Hero Sparkman go attack her Amazoness Chain Master!" Sparkman leaped over to the Amazoness and shot electricity at her, destroying the monster. "And I'll just throw down a facedown and end my turn."

Jaden and Alexis: 8000 LP

Michael and Michelle: 7900 LP

Michelle growled. "You'll pay for that. I summon my Amazoness Trainee in attack mode!" A young Amazoness in similar clothes to the Amazoness Chain Master appeared on the field.

Amazoness Trainee: 1500 ATK/1300 DEF

"And I'll start by attacking your little girlfriend! Go Amazoness Trainee!" The young Amazoness leapt over towards the Blade Skater and attacked the monster, destroying it and kicking up a cloud of dust. When the dust settled, Alexis's monster was gone, but no life points had been lost.

"Thankfully I activated my Hallowed Life Barrier in time," Alexis commented with a smile. "You got rid of my monster, but our life points are still intact."

Michelle grinned and shrugged. "No big deal. The attack did what it was supposed to. Your Blade Skater is gone and now my Trainee gets a two hundred attack point boost!"

Amazoness Trainee: 1700 ATK/1300 DEF

"Huh? Why'd your monster get an increase in attack points?" Jaden asked in confusion.

Michael smirked as he looked towards his sister. "Any time Amazoness Trainee destroys a monster she gets two hundred attack points. Almost like a reward for taking out the enemy."

"That could be a potential problem…" Alexis muttered to herself before she drew her card. "Alright I'll summon Cyber Tutu!" The pink haired monster appeared on the field with a smile, twirling over to stand by Sparkman, giving him a wave. Sparkman nodded his head and gave her a two-finger salute.

Cyber Tutu: 1000 ATK/1000 DEF

"And by using her special effect when you have monster that have higher attack points than Cyber Tutu, she gets to attack you directly! So go show them what you're made of Tutu!" Alexis ordered. The cheerful monster bobbed her head before sprinting over to Michael, leaping over his monster and delivering a spinning kick to his chest, knocking him to his knees.

Jaden and Alexis: 8000 LP

Michael and Michelle: 6900 LP

Michael glared at Alexis as he pushed himself back to his feet. "You little—"

"I would _not_ recommend you finish that sentence," Jaden cut through with a hiss, already sensing where Michael was going with his comment. Alexis looked over at the two-toned brunette in surprise to see that his face was completely serious, void of any amusement or fun. He was dead serious.

"Oh what, did I hit a nerve lover boy?" Michael taunted, drawing his card. Spotting the card he'd drawn he smirked. "Let's see if I can't hit another! I summon Test Tiger!"

Test Tiger: 600 ATK/300 DEF

"And now I'll use his special effect in order to shuffle Gladiator Beast Andal back into the deck so I can special summon Gladiator Beast Laquari! And anytime Laquari is special summoned its original attack points change from 1800 to 2100!"

Gladiator Beast Laquari: 2100 ATK/400 DEF

"Now Laquari attack his Sparkman!" The large tiger like monster with flame around it jumped towards Sparkman and slashed at him with his claws, destroying the Elemental Hero.

Jaden and Alexis: 7500 LP

Michael and Michelle: 6900 LP

"You just activated my trap card, Hero Signal!" Jaden announced, activating the trap card. "Whenever you destroy one of my Elemental Heroes, I can summon one from my hand! And I summon Elemental Hero Clayman in defense mode!" The large clay hero appeared on the field and kneeled down, crossing his arms over his chest.

Elemental Hero Clayman: 800 ATK/2000 DEF

"You think your little mud monster can save you?" Michelle sneered.

Michael laughed. "We've got this duel in the bag. You're move."

Jaden drew his card and then looked at his hand. There wasn't anything he could use that would be helpful in their situation. The only thing he could do was hope that Alexis had his back. "I pass."

Michelle threw her head back and laughed. "Is that what Seto Kaiba teaches at that little duel school of his? How to pass? This is just pathetic! I was hoping our first duel would be against people that could actually challenge us."

"I'm with you there," Michael agreed with an annoyed look. "Guess the faster we finish this duel, the faster we can get to worthy opponents."

"Don't count us out just yet! We've been known to pull out some wicked wins!" Jaden retorted with a smile on his face as he turned to Alexis. The small smile and nod on her face was enough to let him know that she was confident and she had a plan.

"We'll see about that. I summon my Amazoness Tiger in attack mode! And with my Amazoness Trainee on the field my Tiger gets four hundred extra attack points!" A fierce looking red tiger with golden gauntlets and a scar over its right eye appeared on the field, prowling back and forth with its eyes fixated on Jaden and Alexis.

Amazoness Tiger: 1500 ATK/1500 DEF

"And not only that but I'll activate my Amazoness Village spell card!" Immediately the area around Michelle's side of the field looked as it had huts behind her and near her monsters. "With my Amazoness Village in play all my Amazoness' get a two hundred attack point boost!"

Amazoness Trainee: 1900 ATK/1300 DEF

Amazoness Tiger: 1700 ATK/1500 DEF

"Now I'll attack your Cyber Tutu with my Amazoness Trainee!" Michelle shouted out, sending her monster towards the pink dancer.

Alexis narrowed her eyes before she revealed her facedown card. "You activated my trap card, Doble Passe! It turns you attack on my monster to a direct attack! And then my Cyber Tutu gets to attack you directly!" Trainee punched Alexis in the face, sending her to her knees while Cyber Tutu took off and kicked Michelle in the chest just as she had with her brother, sending her to the ground.

Jaden and Alexis: 6800 LP

Michael and Michelle: 5900 LP

Michelle growled. "You forget I still have a monster left! Amazoness Tiger take out her Cyber Tutu!" The large tiger used its powerful legs to propel itself towards Tutu to bite down on her shoulder, causing the pink-haired monster, destroying it.

Jaden and Alexis: 5400 LP

Michael and Michelle: 5900 LP

"It's your move," Michelle announced with a smirk.

Alexis narrowed her eyes at her before she shared a look with Jaden. She could see the look in his eyes and automatically knew that he was trying to come up with ways that they could turn the duel around. She drew her card and a smile fell upon her face. If she played her cards right, she could have a chance get the turn around Jaden was looking for. "Alright I'll summon my Etoile Cyber in defense mode and I'll place one card facedown."

Etoile Cyber: 1200 ATK/1600 DEF

Michael snorted. "Not much else you can do huh? Well then let me take over! I'll have my Gladiator Beast Laquari attack your Elemental Hero Clayman!" The creature ran across the field and dragged its claws into Clayman's arms, destroying the monster, and leaving Jaden and Alexis with only Etoile Cyber as their last line of defense. "And because Laquari attacked this turn, I can use his special ability in order to shuffle him back into the deck and special summon another Gladiator Beast and I choose my Gladiator Beast Samnite!"

Gladiator Beast Samnite: 1600 ATK/1200 DEF

A large purple animal with dark purple armor and large fangs appeared on the field, snarling towards Jaden and Alexis. Michael looked at his monster and smiled. "I'll end my turn. You two feel free to try and save yourself."

Jaden sucked in a deep breath before he drew his card and smiled. "I'll activate the spell card Graceful Charity in order to draw three cards as long as I discard two!" Jaden looked at his three cards an immediately a plan formed in his head. He discarded his two cards and grabbed his third. "I summon my Dandylion to the field!" The small lion/flower hybrid appeared on the field, puffing out its tiny chest, trying to appear brave. "Your turn."

Dandylion: 300 ATK/300 DEF

Michelle burst into laughter as soon as she saw the monster, and looked to Jaden as if he was joking. "You've got to be kidding me! You pull out a monster like _that_ to try and beat us? Either you're not taking us seriously or you really are that pathetic!"

"Why don't you quit bashing out cards and start playing some of yours," Alexis called out, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at Michelle.

The girl sneered. "You want to see more of my cards? You got it! I'll summon my Amazoness Swords Woman in attack mode! And with another Amazoness on my side of the field my Amazoness Tiger gets an extra four hundred attack points! Not to mention the two hundred attack point boost my Amazoness Swords Woman gets because of my Amazoness Village!"

Amazoness Tiger: 2100 ATK/1500 DEF

Amazoness Swords Woman: 1700 ATK/1600 DEF

"Hey Michael, you mind if I borrow your Samnite? We can just end this duel right now!" Michelle asked with a smirk on her face.

Michael saw that with the monsters they had and the amount of life points Jaden and Alexis had, if they used all their monsters to attack, they'd win. He gave his sister a matching smirk and nodded. "By all means, use him till your heart's content."

"Alright, now I'll have my Amazoness Swords Woman attack your Etoile Cyber and then have the rest of our monsters attack you directly and end this duel!" Michelle shouted as the four monsters surged towards the two duelists.

"Not so fast! I activate my facedown spell card Scapegoat!" Alexis shouted out just as the monsters closed in. The four sheep tokens appeared on the field, taking the hit from all four monsters and leaving Jaden and Alexis's life points intact.

"Nice one Lex!" Jaden complimented, tossing a smile towards the blonde.

Alexis grinned. "Thanks Jaden!"

Michael scowled. "So what, you two bought yourself some time. The outcome is still gonna be the same. Try as much as you want."

"Well don't mind if I do!" Alexis retorted. "I activate the spell card The Warrior Returning Alive in order to bring back my Cyber Tutu! But she won't be staying her long. I'll sacrifice my Cyber Tutu in order to summon my Cyber Prima in attack mode!" The blue and gray clad monster appeared on the field in a ballet position. "And whenever Cyber Prima is special summoned onto the field she can destroy all face up spell cards, including your Amazoness Village!" The huts disappeared and the card shattering, bringing the Amazoness monsters down two hundred attack points.

Amazoness Trainee: 1700 ATK/1300 DEF

Amazoness Swords Woman: 1500 ATK/1600 DEF

Amazoness Tiger: 1900 ATK/1500 DEF

"And now that your monsters have been knocked down a peg I'll have my Cyber Prima attack your Amazoness Swords Woman!"

"Any time my Amazoness Tiger is on the field with other Amazoness' all attacks are directed to my Tiger!" Michelle called out as Cyber Prima abruptly changed her direction and charged towards the tiger, kicking it and destroying the monster.

Jaden and Alexis: 5400 LP

Michael and Michelle: 5500 LP

"Now I'll just place one card face down and end my turn," Alexis completed with a satisfied smile on her face.

Jaden looked over at Alexis and gave her a smile and a thumbs up. Dueling with Alexis again after such a long time made him remember the first time they'd ever dueled. He'd been awed by her skills and her determination that first day and it was what had originally captured his attention. Alexis was a beautiful girl who could kick ass in a duel and just like that very first day, Jaden couldn't help but admire the Queen of the Obelisks now.

"Why the hell didn't you stop her?" Michael asked loudly as he glared at his sister, catching Jaden's attention.

Michelle glared back. "What do you mean why didn't I stop her? How could I have known what she planned to do?!"

"That's just an excuse," Michael retorted before drawing his card. There was a slight twitch in his lips downwards that Jaden managed to catch. It looked like he didn't have such a good draw. "Alright now I'll have my Gladiator Beast Samnite attack your little Dandylion!" The larger purple monster attacked and destroyed the tiny monster, creating a cloud of dust.

Jaden and Alexis: 4100 LP

Michael and Michelle: 5500 LP

"Then I'll just turn it over to you."

Jaden grinned. "Alright, I think it's almost time we ended this duel, what do you think Alexis?"

"I think you're right Jaden," Alexis replied with a smile.

"Now I summon my Elemental Hero Neos!" The silver alien looking monster appeared on the field beside Cyber Prima and struck a fighting pose before standing up right and crossing his arms over his chest.

Elemental Hero Neos: 2500 ATK/2000 DEF

"Now Elemental Hero Neos, attack Gladiator Beast Samnite!" The monster surged across the field and struck the Gladiator Beast before retuning back to his side of the field.

Jaden and Alexis: 4100 LP

Michael and Michelle: 4600 LP

"Your turn Michelle."

Michelle clenched her jaw and turned to glare at her brother. "Why the hell didn't you put any cards facedown to negate their attacks?"

"I _can't_," Michael hissed her way. "You know most of my monsters have special effects which is why I don't have many other spell or trap cards!"

Michelle snorted and drew her card before she clenched her jaw again. "I switch my Amazoness Trainee and my Amazoness Swords Woman to defense mode."

"Sorry but that's not going to do you much good," Alexis smirked. "I activate my spell card Meteorain which means that when I attack you with a monster that has a higher attack points than your monsters defense points, the difference is dealt to you as damage! So I'll have my Cyber Prima attack your Amazoness Trainee!" Cyber Prima took off and attacked the Amazoness Trainee, destroying the monster.

Jaden and Alexis: 4100 LP

Michael and Michelle: 3600 LP

"Pick it up Michelle! Stop playing like a newbie!" Michael insulted before he drew his card. "I summon my Gladiator Beast Andal back onto the field in defense mode."

Gladiator Beast Andal: 1900 ATK/1500 DEF

"So it's my turn?" Jaden asked with a grin. When Michael nodded his grin turned into a beam. "I activate my spell card The Warrior Returning alive in order to bring back my Elemental Hero Avian!" The green man with large white wings and claws for his hands appeared on the field, stretching his large wings.

Elemental Hero Avian: 1000 ATK/1000 DEF

"No way! You never summoned Avian, how is he in your graveyard?" Michelle demanded.

"Remember when I used my Graceful Charity card?" Jaden reminded, immediately causing the twins to flinch. Jaden nodded and smiled. "That's right! One of the two cards I discarded was my Elemental Hero Avian! I just thought I'd bring him out so you two could see a real tag-duo! And now I'll use my spell card Polymerization so I can fuse my Avian with my Elemental Hero Burstinatrix in my hand in order to make my Elemental Hero Flame Wingman!" The red and green warrior appeared on the field, swishing its tail back and forth and stretching its dragon head claw towards the twins.

Elemental Hero Flame Wingman: 2100 ATK/1200 DEF

"Now go Flame Wingman take out his Gladiator Beast Andal!" Jaden ordered, sending his monster across the field to destroy the beast. When the beast was destroyed Jaden grinned. "And even though your monster was in defense mode, my Flame Wingman has a super power! You see whenever he destroys a monster he deals that monsters attack points as damage to you!" The Wingman blasted Michael back, sending him to the ground and taking out a nice chunk of their life points.

Jaden and Alexis: 4100 LP

Michael and Michelle: 1700 LP

Michelle growled as she looked to her brother. "Get off your ass! Do I have to do all the work around here? I summon my Amazoness Queen in attack mode!" The blue-haired monster with a large sword appeared on the field looking cocky and confident.

Amazoness Queen: 2400 ATK/1800 DEF

"Now I'll have my Amazoness Queen take out your little Flame Wingman!"

"Not happening!" Alexis called out as the Amazoness Queen started to take off for Jaden's monster. "I activate my facedown trap card Negate Attack!"

The Amazoness Queen immediately halted and returned back to standing in front of Michelle. The girl looked confident and crossed her arms over her chest. "So you saved him, big deal! My Amazoness Queen is still the strongest monster here! And as long as she's here you can't destroy my Amazoness Swords Woman by battle either!"

Alexis smirked. "Well let's change that shall we? I summon my Cyber Petit Angel!" The small round pink monster flying monster appeared on the field and nuzzled Alexis's face before she took her place beside Cyber Prima.

Cyber Petit Angel: 300 ATK/200 DEF

"_That?_ You expect _that _to beat us?" Michael asked incredulously.

"Yes, I expect her to help me out by using her special affect! Whenever I summon my Cyber Petit Angel I get to place the spell card Machine Angel Ritual in my hand! And I'm going to activate it right now! I sacrifice my Cyber Prima and my Cyber Petit Angel in order to bring out my Cyber Angel Dakini!" The four-armed female monster appeared on the field in her black gold and orange armor with her two swords and staff in her hands.

Cyber Angel Dakini: 2700 ATK/2400 DEF

"Now because of one of Dakini's special affects you have to choose one of your monsters that's automatically destroyed!" Alexis said with a grin on her face.

Michelle looked at the powerful monster and shook her head, surprised and amazed. She looked at her field and saw her two monsters and her brother was completely defenseless. With the two powerhouses that Jaden and Alexis had summoned and her having to pick a monster that gets destroyed… there was no way they could win. Michelle exhaled and pointed to her Swords Woman. Immediately the Amazoness was destroyed, leaving the Amazoness Queen to protect Michelle and Michael's life points.

"Alright Dakini, go destroy her Amazoness Queen and Flame Wingman follow up with a direct attack and end this duel!" The two monsters shot off, Dakini slicing at the Queen and destroying her before the Wingman blasted at Michelle, knocking her onto her butt and causing a mini-explosion as their life points dropped.

Jaden and Alexis: 4100 LP

Michael and Michelle: 0 LP

Jaden and Alexis shared a bright smile before they both turned to look at Michael and Michelle, giving them a two finger salute and a wink. "And that's game!"

"How… how did we get beaten by them?!" Michelle demanded looking towards Michael.

Michael snorted. "Don't look at me, this was obviously your fault!"

_"My_ fault?!"

"Uh… ahem."

The two twins whipped around to look at Jaden and Alexis who were grinning at them sheepishly. Jaden scratched the back of his head and shrugged. "We kinda need the Glyph Capsules."

Michael growled and pulled out his Glyph Capsule tossing his to Jaden while Michelle put it roughly in Alexis's hands. "Take them!" The twins shouted in unison before they did an abrupt about-face and stalked back into the forest, arguing with each other the entire way. As soon as they were out of their line of sight—and earshot—Jaden and Alexis turned to each other, excited smiles on their faces.

"We did it!" Jaden exclaimed, scooping Alexis up into a hug. Alexis laughed and tossed her arms around his neck, hugging him back. "This is awesome! We beat one of the top ten tag-duelists on the circuit!"

"I know it's amazing!" Alexis replied as soon as Jaden put her down. "I didn't think we'd win our first duel!"

Jaden pouted. "Aw Lex, c'mon ya had to have more faith than that! You are a wicked duelist and you kicked butt back there!"

"Thanks Jaden, but you weren't too bad yourself."

"I try."

The two lulled into a silence and it was only then that they noticed that Alexis still had her arms around Jaden's neck and his arms were still wrapped around her waist. The two stared at one another, looking into each other's eyes when they made a second realization. They were being watched. They each still had on their LOS systems and they hadn't bothered to stop recording before they went to sleep, so there were probably people watching this moment between them.

Alexis and Jaden quickly separated, coughing awkwardly as they tried to will the blush off of their faces. Jaden scratched the back of his head and Alexis pretended to be interested with the sky. Suddenly she spotted something and blinked. "Hey look at that Jaden."

Jaden quit his anti-embarrassment tactic and moved forward to see what Alexis was pointing at. Just beyond the trees the sky was starting to turn orange on the horizon. He grinned. "He the sun is rising! That means another day of dueling and challenges!" Alexis smiled at him and nodded in agreement before a loud growling emanating from Jaden's stomach caught their attention. She laughed and he grinned at her sheepishly. "But before we duel and start challenges let's find some food! I'm starving!"

* * *

**"Is there love in the air at our Ancient City Tournament? Only time will tell as a new day dawns, and with it comes a new set of challenges and duels to be had! Continue watching with us as our duelists battle to see who will be crowned the victor of this tournament!" **

Derrick continued smiling into the camera until he got the signal from his cameraman that they were off of live TV. Immediately he relaxed his posture and moved out from the set so he was behind the cameras where all the monitors were set showing the video feed from all of the cameras set up on the island and the LOS systems. He looked down at his producer who was seated at the desk monitoring the screens and smiled. "So how are we doing Matt?"

"Phenomenal," Matt responded, pushing some of his jet black hair away from his eyes and adjusting his glasses, never taking his eyes off the screen. "Our ratings are through the roof. They break every known record for a televised Duel Monsters tournament around. And the audience is just eating up the live feeds. They like the attractiveness of Aster paired with the adorableness of Syrus, the arguments that Chazz and Joey keep having are getting so many comments that they now have a Team Chazz and Team Joey, Kaiba and Zane and Yugi and Jesse have a good portion of the females adding their feeds to their Quicklist, there are groups of fans that are debating whether or not Jesse and Danni should be together or if Danni and Atticus are cuter and Jaden and Alexis are trending as the 'OTP' of the tournament. It's brilliant."

Derrick let out a whistle and accepted a cup of coffee their personal assistant—Nancy—brought over to him. "Gotta hand it to Maximillion Pegasus, he's got a lot of brains to have set this up." Matt nodded his head and Derrick grinned looking at the duelist feeds. "So, who do you think we'll see duel today?"

"A large majority of the duelists are clumped in the same general area. With any luck, we can get to see quite a few duels before the nights over."

"Perfect."


End file.
